Relationship between environmental and land-use variables on soil carbon levels at the regional scale in central New South Wales, Australia
Warwick B. Badgery A E , Aaron T. Simmons A , Brian M. Murphy B , Andrew Rawson C , Karl O. Andersson A D , Vanessa E. Lonergan D and Remy van de Ven A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A NSW Department of Primary Industries, Orange Agricultural Institute, 1447 Forest Road, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia.
B NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, PO Box 445, Cowra, NSW 2794, Australia.
C NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, c/o Charles Sturt University Orange, Leeds Parade, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia.
D School of Environment and Rural Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: warwick.badgery@dpi.nsw.gov.au
Soil Research 51(8) 645-656 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR12358
Submitted: 6 December 2012 Accepted: 21 September 2013 Published: 20 December 2013
Abstract
The potential to change agricultural land use to increase soil carbon stocks has been proposed as a mechanism to offset greenhouse gas emissions. To estimate the potential carbon storage in the soil from regional surveys it is important to understand the influence of environmental variables (climate, soil type, and landscape) before land management can be assessed. A survey was done of 354 sites to determine soil organic carbon stock (SOC stock; Mg C/ha) across the Lachlan and Macquarie catchments of New South Wales, Australia. The influences of climate, soil physical and chemical properties, landscape position, and 10 years of land management information were assessed. The environmental variables described most of the regional variation compared with management. The strongest influence on SOC stock at 0–10 cm was from climatic variables, particularly 30-year average annual rainfall. At a soil depth of 20–30 cm, the proportion of silica (SiO2) determined by mid-infrared spectra (SiMIR) had a negative relationship with SOC stock, and sand and clay measured by particle size analysis also showed strong relationships at sites where measured. Of the difference in SOC stock explained by land use, cropping had lower soil carbon than pasture in rotation or permanent pasture at 0–10 cm. This relationship was consistent across a rainfall gradient, but once soil carbon was standardised per mm of average annual rainfall, there was a greater difference between cropping and permanent pasture with increasing SiMIR in soils. Land use is also regulated by climate, topography, and soil type, and the effect on SOC stock is better assessed in smaller land-management units to remove some variability due to climate and soil.
Additional keywords: land management, mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, particle size analysis, silica, soil organic carbon.
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