Calibration of the RothC model to turnover of soil carbon under eucalypts and pines
K. I. Paul A B and P. J. Polglase AA CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products, PO Box E4008, Kingston ACT 2604, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: Keryn.Paul@csiro.au
Australian Journal of Soil Research 42(8) 883-895 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR04025
Submitted: 22 April 2004 Accepted: 12 October 2004 Published: 14 December 2004
Abstract
The FullCAM model was developed for full carbon accounting in agriculture and forests at project and national scales. For forest systems, FullCAM links the empirical CAMFor model to models of tree growth (3PG), litter decomposition (GENDEC), and soil carbon turnover (RothC). Our objective was to calibrate RothC within the FullCAM framework using 2 long-term forestry experiments where productivity had been manipulated and archived and new soil samples were available for analysis of carbon within the various pools described by RothC. Inputs of carbon to soil at these trials were estimated by calibrating FullCAM to temporal data on above-ground growth, litterfall, and accumulation of litter. Two alternative submodels are available in FullCAM (CAMFor and GENDEC) for predicting decomposition of litter, and thus the input of carbon into the soil. Calibration of RothC was most sensitive to the partitioning of carbon during decomposition of debris between that lost as CO2 and that transferred to soil. Turnover of soil carbon was best simulated when the proportion of carbon lost to CO2 from relatively labile pools of debris was 77% (when simulated by CAMFor) and 95% (when simulated by GENDEC), whereas resistant pools of debris lost about 40% to CO2 during decomposition. Although rates of decomposition of pools of soil carbon were originally developed in RothC for agricultural soils, these constants were found to be also suitable for soils under plantation systems.
Additional keywords: FullCAM, CAMFor, GENDEC, sequestration, decomposition, Eucalyptus, Pinus.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Australian Greenhouse Office (National Carbon Accounting System). V. Koul, J. Smith, J. Skjemstad, and L. Spouncer are thanked for their help with soil analysis. For making unpublished data available, we thank P. Khanna, S. Pongrancic, J. Smith, and B. Myers (CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products). N. O’Brien (The University of Melbourne), J. Baldock (CSIRO Land and Water) and D. Powlson and K. Coleman (Rothamsted Research Station) are thanked for reviewing earlier versions of the manuscript.
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