Twenty-five years of observations of soil organic carbon in Swiss croplands showing stability overall but with some divergent trends.

ABSTRACT: The temporal evolution of soil organic carbon (SOC) is of major importance given its status as a key parameter in many soil functions. Furthermore, soils constitute an important reservoir of carbon in our environment. In light of climate change, consistent SOC data over extended periods in combination with information on agricultural management are much required, but still scarce. We report SOC changes in the topsoil (0-20 cm) of Swiss cropland measured at well-defined monitoring sites resampled every 5 years from 1990 to 2014 by the Swiss Soil Monitoring Network NABO using consistent sampling protocols and quality assurance. Data on agricultural management practices were retrieved from farmers. Overall, SOC remained stable for the ensemble of monitoring sites, although increasing and decreasing trends were observed for individual sites, ranging from -?11 to +?16% relative change per decade. Changes in the agricultural management of cropland triggered substantial changes in SOC contents for some sites. Moreover, sites with a low ratio of SOC/clay (

SUBMITTER: Gubler A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6469600 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature