Quantifying total and labile pools of soil organic carbon in cultivated and uncultivated soils in eastern India
Kumari Priyanka A and Anshumali A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Laboratory of Biogeochemistry, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand-826004, India.
B Corresponding author. Email: malijnu@gmail.com
Soil Research 56(4) 413-420 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR17188
Submitted: 20 July 2017 Accepted: 19 January 2018 Published: 27 April 2018
Abstract
Loss of labile carbon (C) fractions yields information about the impact of land-use changes on sources of C inputs, pathways of C losses and mechanisms of soil C sequestration. This study dealt with the total organic C (TOC) and labile C pools in 40 surface soil samples (0–15 cm) collected from four land-use practices: uncultivated sites and rice–wheat, maize–wheat and sugarcane agro-ecosystems. Uncultivated soils had a higher total C pool than croplands. The soil inorganic C concentrations were in the range of 0.7–1.4 g kg–1 under different land-use practices. Strong correlations were found between TOC and all organic C pools, except water-extractable organic C and mineralisable C. The sensitivity index indicated that soil organic C pools were susceptible to changes in land-use practices. Discriminant function analysis showed that the nine soil variables could distinguish the maize–wheat and rice–wheat systems from uncultivated and sugarcane systems. Finally, we recommend crop rotation practices whereby planting sugarcane replenishes TOC content in soils.
Additional keywords: discriminant function analysis, labile carbon pool, sensitivity index, sub-tropical region.
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