Hot water extractable carbon in whole soil and particle-size fractions isolated from soils under contrasting land-use treatments
Denis Curtin
A * , Mike H. Beare A and Weiwen Qiu A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Private Bag 4704, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Soil Research 60(8) 772-781 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR21251
Submitted: 15 October 2021 Accepted: 3 April 2022 Published: 10 June 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Context: Understanding the dynamics of soil organic matter (SOM) requires that it be divided into fractions with contrasting behaviour.
Aim: Using soils from a field trial with a diverse set of treatments (pasture to arable conversion, ex-pasture soil maintained fallow for 13 years and arable cropping with contrasting tillage treatments), we evaluated two approaches to characterise SOM: particle-size fractionation and hot water extraction.
Methods: Soils were separated into four size fractions, including the >50 μm fraction (particulate organic matter, considered the most labile fraction) and the <5 μm fraction (stabilised C associated with clay particles). Hot water extractable C (HWC; 80°C for 16 h) was determined on whole soil and on the isolated size fractions.
Key results: Whereas total soil C stocks (0–25 cm) declined by an average of 14% under arable cropping and by 23% under continuous fallow, the decline in HWC was much greater (31% under arable and 49% under bare fallow). A large part (>50%) of the C lost under cropping and bare fallow was derived from the clay fraction, which was also the source of 59–77% of HWC.
Conclusions and Implications: Our results indicate that hot water is specific for the labile component of SOM while SOM in size fractions is a composite of labile and stable components, the proportions of which may vary depending on land use and other factors. Ideally, data on quantity of SOM in size fractions should be complemented by information on its lability.
Keywords: hot water extraction, labile C, land use effects, long-term fallow, particle size fractionation, pasture, soil organic matter, tillage.
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