Influence of Agricultural Management on Soil Organic Carbon: A Compendium and Assessment of Canadian Studies
- Soil, Water, Air and Production Systems - ECORC (Ottawa), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
- Sainte-Foy Research Farm, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
To fulfill commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is required to provide verifiable estimates and uncertainties for soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, and for changes in those stocks over time. Estimates and uncertainties for agricultural soils can be derived from long-term studies that have measured differences in SOC between different management practices. We compiled published data from long-term studies in Canada to assess the effect of agricultural management on SOC. A total of 62 studies were compiled, in which the difference in SOC was determined for conversion from native land to cropland, and for different tillage, crop rotation and fertilizer management practices. There was a loss of 24 ± 6% of the SOC after native land was converted to agricultural land. No-till (NT) increased the storage of SOC in western Canada by 2.9 - 1.3 Mg ha ^-1; however, in eastern Canada conversion to NT did not increase SOC. In general, the potential to store SOC when NT was adopted decreased with increasing background levels of SOC. Using no-tillage, reducing summer fallow, including hay in rotation with wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), plowing green manures into the soil, and applying N and organic fertilizers were the practices that tended to show the most consistent increases in SOC storage. By relating treatment SOC levels to those in the control treatments, SOC stock change factors and their levels of uncertainty were derived for use in empirical models, such as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines model for C stock changes. However, we must be careful when attempting to extrapolate research plot data to farmers' fields since the history of soil and crop management has a significant influence on existing and future SOC stocks. Table 1. Effect on soil organic carbon of converting native land to agricultural Table 2. Differences in soil organic carbon as a result of different agricultural management practices To access the older version of this data package see: http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/programs/CSEQ/terrestrial/vandenbygaart2003/vandenbygaart2003.html
- Research Organization:
- Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE) (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- U.S. DOE > Office of Science (SC) > Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
- OSTI ID:
- 1389518
- Report Number(s):
- cdiac:doi 10.3334/CDIAC/tcm.001; osti:1389518; doi:10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.001
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
C sequestation
crop rotations
fertilizer
cropping intensity
Canada
tillage
Carbon Cycle
Carbon Sequestration
Soil carbon
CARBON SEQUESTRATION-TERRESTRIAL
Location
MAP (mm)
MAT (degree C)
PET
Soil (Great Groupz/Soil Type)
Soil (Great Group^z)
Textural Class
Duration(yrs)
Treatment^x
Depth of sampling (cm)
Depth of sampling (cm)or horizon
Soil profiles Sampled
SOC control (Mg ha^-1)
Net C difference (Mg ha^-1)
C Storage rate (gC m^-2 yr^-1)
Relative Treatment
Years since conversion
D Soil C (%)
Reference