Changes in soil organic carbon lability along the altitudinal variations in three land use types of Meghalaya, India
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Changes in soil organic carbon lability along the altitudinal variations in three land use types of Meghalaya, India Gaurav Mishra1 · Avishek Sarkar1 · Juri Das1 Received: 21 March 2020 / Revised: 21 August 2020 / Accepted: 21 August 2020 / Published online: 29 August 2020 © Society for Environmental Sustainability 2020
Abstract Assessment of soil organic carbon (SOC) in different land use systems is very important, due to the tremendous potential of terrestrial ecosystems in carbon (C) sequestration. Moreover, its dynamic nature and vulnerability to land use change, makes SOC an important indicator of soil health. In order to elucidate the effects of different land uses on total SOC content and labile C pools, soil samples were collected from forest, rubber plantations and cultivated fields (30 cm depth from three elevation zones). Total SOC was significantly higher in forest soils (1.81%), while plantation and cultivated fields had statistically similar values. The higher value of very labile carbon ( CVL) pool (12.09 mg g−1) was also recorded in forest soils and was significantly affected by land uses. However, the values of less labile carbon ( CLL) and non-labile carbon ( CNL) were highest under rubber plantation. In all the studied land uses, active carbon pool (ACP) was higher in comparison to passive carbon pool (PCP). Correlation study demonstrated that total SOC content mainly depends on the C VL and labile C (CL) pool. C VL and ACP were significantly influenced by the studied land uses at the considered elevations and their content increases with the elevation. These results suggest forest soil C is more vulnerable, if converted to other land uses, while rubber plantations have potential to store C in long term, by conserving CLL and C NL pools. In addition, there is need to study the relationship between soil moisture, C supply, soil microbial and enzymatic actives, which can modify labile C pools in different land uses at different elevations. Keywords Land uses · Altitude · Soil carbon pools · Meghalaya · Northeast India
Introduction The stabilization of soil organic carbon (SOC) in any terrestrial ecosystem is very important, due to the role of soil carbon (C) in regulating regional or global carbon cycle. In addition, the role of SOC in conditioning and maintaining ecosystem health and services is very well defined (Mishra and Sarkar 2020). After knowing the importance of SOC in addressing the climate change and food security issues, nowadays, scientific research is much oriented towards the strategies, which can enhance the storage of C in soil. The soils under forest land use are considered more crucial for C sequestration than other land uses, because they contain more carbon per unit area and serve as largest sink for carbon dioxide (Lal 2005). In agriculture fields, there may be * Gaurav Mishra [email protected] 1
Division of Silviculture and Forest Management, Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat, Assam 785001, India
loss of SOC, due to manageme
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