CO2 emission and source partitioning from carbonate and non-carbonate soils during incubation

doi:10.1016/S1002-0160(21)60011-5

Pedosphere

Volume 32, Issue 3, June 2022, Pages 452-462

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0160(21)60011-5 Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

The accurate quantification and source partitioning of CO₂ emitted from carbonate (i.e., Haplustalf) and non-carbonate (i.e., Hapludult) soils are critically important for understanding terrestrial carbon (C) cycling. The two main methods to capture CO₂ released from soils are the alkali trap method and the direct gas sampling method. A 25-d laboratory incubation experiment was conducted to compare the efficacies of these two methods to analyze CO₂ emissions from the non-carbonate and carbonate-rich soils. An isotopic fraction was introduced into the calculations to determine the impacts on partitioning of the sources of CO₂ into soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) and into C3 and/or C4 plant-derived SOC. The results indicated that CO₂ emissions from the non-carbonate soil measured using the alkali trap and gas sampling methods were not significantly different. For the carbonate-rich soil, the CO₂ emission measured using the alkali trap method was significantly higher than that measured using the gas sampling method from the 14th day of incubation onwards. Although SOC and SIC each accounted for about 50% of total soil C in the carbonate-rich soil, SOC decomposition contributed 57%–72% of the total CO₂ emitted. For both non-carbonate and carbonate-rich soils, the SOC derived from C4 plants decomposed faster than that originated from C3 plants. We propose that for carbonate soil, CO₂ emission may be overestimated using the alkali trap method because of decreasing CO₂ pressure within the incubation jar, but underestimated using the direct gas sampling method. The gas sampling interval and ambient air may be important sources of error, and steps should be taken to mitigate errors related to these factors in soil incubation and CO₂ quantification studies.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

Soil is the largest carbon (C) pool on the earth, with an organic carbon (OC) stock of 1 550 Pg and an inorganic carbon (IC) stock of 950 Pg (Lal, 2007). In arid and semi-arid regions, which occupy a total land area of 4.9 × 10⁷ km² (Lardner et al., 2015), the soil inorganic carbon (SIC) stock is approximately 10 times greater than that of soil organic carbon (SOC) (Schlesinger, 1982). The SIC and SOC pools play a significant role in global C sequestration (Lal, 2009). Because SIC significantly

Incubation experiment

Two types of soils, carbonate and non-carbonate soils, were used for this experiment. The carbonate-rich soil was collected in Shanxi Province in northwestern China (34°17′59.317″ N, 108°04′9.384″ E), at the southern edge of the Loess Plateau. This region is in a warm temperate zone with a semi-humid and semi-arid climate and an average annual temperature and precipitation of 13 °C and 600–650 mm, respectively. The soil is classified as Eum-Orthic Anthrosol in Chinese Soil Taxonomy, equivalent

Soil C contents, pH and δ¹³C values

The C contents, δ¹³C values, and pH differed significantly between Hapludult (non-carbonate soil) and Haplustalf (carbonate-rich soil) (Table I). The pH of Hapludult (7.2 ± 0.2) was significantly lower than that of Haplustalf (7.8 ± 0.2). The TC content of Hapludult was 10.3 ± 0.1 g kg^-1, of which 99% was SOC. In contrast, the TC content of Haplustalf was 17.1 ± 0.1 g kg^-1, comprising about 50% SOC and 50% SIC. The δ¹³C value of TC (δ¹³C_TC, −20.6‰ ± 0.1‰) in Hapludult was significantly lower

CONCLUSIONS

Both alkali trap and gas sampling methods can be used to quantify CO₂ emissions from soils in incubation studies. For the carbonate soil, the alkali trap method may overestimate the CO₂ emissions due to decreasing CO₂ pressure within the incubation jar, while the direct gas sampling method may underestimate CO₂ emissions. It was found that longer sampling intervals resulted in greater differences in measured CO₂ values between the two gas collection methods. Interference from ambient air was a

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFD0201200) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31370527, 31261140367, and 30870414). The first author would like to acknowledge the Chinese Scholarship Council (No. 201706350210) for the support of the work.

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Nitrification inhibitor 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate alleviates the dissolution of soil inorganic carbon caused by nitrogen fertilization
2024, Geoderma
In carbonate soils, soil inorganic carbon (SIC) dissolves and releases CO₂ due to exogenous application of nitrogen fertilizer, which makes the soil an important carbon source. Application of the nitrification inhibitor 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) is likely to be an effective measure to alleviate SIC dissolution. A 5-year field experiment was conducted to observe SIC dynamics under three treatments: No N fertilizer (CK), N fertilizer (NF), and N fertilizer combined with DMPP (N + NI). Soil samples were collected from 0 to 20, 20–40, 40–60, 60–80, and 80–100 cm in depth, and soil organic carbon (SOC), SIC, total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), and carbon isotope composition (δ¹³C) of the soil were analyzed. The proportion of pedogenic carbonate (PIC) in SIC was estimated using an isotopic mass balance equation. Results showed that: (1) compared with the application of N only, DMPP had no significant effect on SOC content and δ¹³C_SOC in the 0–100 cm soil profile; (2) the application of N fertilizer significantly reduced the SIC content by 10.0 g·kg⁻¹ (58.3 %) in the 0–80 cm soil profile. In the 0–20, 20–40, and 60–80 cm soil layers, the SIC content was reduced by 2.9, 1.9, and 3.8 g·kg⁻¹, respectively. However, the SIC content significantly increased by 3.2 g·kg⁻¹ (58.9 %) in the 80–100 cm soil layer. DMPP application significantly increased the SIC content in the 0–20 and 20–40 cm soil layers by 1.3 g·kg⁻¹ (50.9 %) and 1.2 g·kg⁻¹ (48.2 %), respectively; (3) DMPP combined with N significantly alleviated PIC dissolution in the 0–40 cm soil layers and increased PIC stock in 0–100 cm soil by 6.2 Mg·ha⁻¹ (64.6 %). Applying DMPP to farmland soil containing carbonate significantly alleviated the dissolution of N fertilizer on PIC, which may decrease CO₂ emissions in the field.
Declining total carbon stocks in carbonate-containing agricultural soils over a 62-year recultivation chronosequence under humid conditions
2022, Geoderma
Citation Excerpt :
The topsoil SIC loss (0.61 Mg C ha−1 y−1) in this reclaimed arable land in Germany exceeds values measured for carbonate-containing agricultural soils in China; although, China is recognized as a country with high N fertilizer application rates (Potter et al., 2010) that are at least 2–3 times those in Germany (Löw et al., 2021). We speculate that there are two main reasons for this: (1) the SIC content in the arable soil in our study was twice that at the beginning of restoration in Chinese carbonate soils (∼6–8 g C kg−1 soil) (Bughio et al., 2015; Bughio et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2022); and (2) in the arid and semi-arid regions of China, part of the CO2 produced after carbonate decomposition will be bound again in the form of PIC (Bughio et al., 2015; Entry et al., 2004; Sahrawat, 2003). However, in our study, almost all of the carbonate present in the surface soil of the reclaimed arable land was decomposed to CO2 and released to the atmosphere.
Replanting of mining soils is necessary for utilizing soil resources and increasing cultivated land areas. However, limited information exists on the long-term temporal trends of carbon accrual in agricultural systems containing carbonate-rich soil material. We examined changes in soil organic carbon (SOC), soil inorganic carbon (SIC), and total carbon (TC) stocks in an agricultural soil containing carbonate over a 62-year recultivation chronosequence. The most critical differences in the SOC, SIC, and TC stocks were observed in the 0–30 cm soil layer. The results revealed that the SOC stock increased rapidly during the first 10–20 years, but only slowly thereafter. The SIC stock decreased over 62-year from approximately 40 Mg C ha⁻¹ to 2 Mg C ha⁻¹. According to soil δ¹³C_TC data, the SIC to TC ratio decreased from 83% (year 0) to 7% (year 62). Overall, the average sequestration rates were 0.30 Mg C ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ for SOC and −0.61 Mg C ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ for SIC over the 62 years after recultivation. Total carbon ultimately declined by approximately 19.5 Mg C ha⁻¹ in recultivated carbonate soils. Topsoil SOC model (Rothamsted Carbon Model) outputs predicted an equilibrium value of 38.6 Mg C ha⁻¹ after 197 years, which was less than the SIC stock lost in the first 70 years. Therefore, an overall TC increase in these carbonate-containing agricultural soils will only occur (i) during the initial rapid SOC sequestration accumulation phase (first 20 years of recultivation); and (ii) after the soils are fully decalcified (after ∼62 years), but when SOC still slowly increases before SOC stocks reached full equilibrium (after ∼197 years). However, compared with starting TC stocks, when we consider periods over a semicentennial and beyond, we will likely lose more TC than we gain in these recultivated agricultural soils if there are no additional TC sequestration measures.
Nitrogen fertilization and liming increased CO<inf>2</inf> and N<inf>2</inf>O emissions from tropical ferralsols, but not from a vertisol
2023, Soil Use and Management

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CO2 emission and source partitioning from carbonate and non-carbonate soils during incubation

ABSTRACT

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

Incubation experiment

Soil C contents, pH and δ13C values

CONCLUSIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Soil Biol Biochem

Soil Biol Biochem

J Arid Environ

Soil Biol Biochem

Pedosphere

Agric For Meteorol

Chem Geol

Geoderma

J Arid Environ

Geoderma

Soil Biol Biochem

Geoderma

Soil Biol Biochem

Chem Geol

Soil Biol Biochem

Natural 13C abundance: A tool to trace the incorporation of dung-derived carbon into soil particle-size fractions

Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom

Real time monitoring of gases emitted from soils using a multi-turn time-of-flight mass spectrometer “MULTUM-S II”

Environ Sci Processes Impacts

Measuring biosphere-atmosphere exchanges of biologically related gases with micrometeorological methods

Ecology

Effect of tillage on soil organic carbon mineralization estimated from 13C abundance in maize fields

J Soil Sci

Short-term N2O, CO2, NH3 fluxes, and N/C transfers in a Danish grass-clover pasture after simulated urine deposition in autumn

J Plant Nutr Soil Sci

Isotope fractionation and 13C enrichment in soil profiles during the decomposition of soil organic matter

Oecologia

Minor stable carbon isotope fractionation between respired carbon dioxide and bulk soil organic matter during laboratory incubation of topsoil

Biogeochemistry

Carbon dioxide emissions from biochar in soil: Role of clay, microorganisms and carbonates

Eur J Soil Sci

Soil respiration in a winter wheat ecosystem

Soil Sci Soc Am J

Measurement of rhizosphere respiration and organic matter decomposition using natural 13C

Plant Soil

Environmental factors controlling soil respiration in three semiarid ecosystems

Soil Sci Soc Am J

Effects of moisture and carbonate additions on CO2 emission from calcareous soil during closed-jar incubation

J Arid Land

Soil-carbon preservation through habitat constraints and biological limitations on decomposer activity

J Plant Nutr Soil Sci

Abiotic carbonate dissolution traps carbon in a semiarid desert

Sci Rep

Fractionation and long-term laboratory incubation to measure soil organic matter dynamics

Soil Sci Soc Am J

CO₂ emission and source partitioning from carbonate and non-carbonate soils during incubation

Soil C contents, pH and δ¹³C values

Natural ¹³C abundance: A tool to trace the incorporation of dung-derived carbon into soil particle-size fractions

Effect of tillage on soil organic carbon mineralization estimated from ¹³C abundance in maize fields

Short-term N₂O, CO₂, NH₃ fluxes, and N/C transfers in a Danish grass-clover pasture after simulated urine deposition in autumn

Isotope fractionation and ¹³C enrichment in soil profiles during the decomposition of soil organic matter

Measurement of rhizosphere respiration and organic matter decomposition using natural ¹³C

Effects of moisture and carbonate additions on CO₂ emission from calcareous soil during closed-jar incubation