Soils with more clay and dense vegetation were rich in soil carbon along Wadi Al-Sharaea, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

ABSTRACT: In arid ecosystems, lack of vegetation and nutrients can negatively impact soil carbon (C) content. In the current study, our goals were to assess soil C stocks to a depth of 50 cm in an arid ecosystem (Wadi Al-Sharaea, Saudi Arabia) and determine their relation to different vegetation cover. To address our research objective, a total of 102 quadrate (randomly selected) were established along the desert wadi. Soil samples were collected to a depth of 50 cm with 5 cm interval, then Soil Bulk Density (SBD, g/cm³), Soil Organic C Content (SOC, g C/kg), and stocks (kg C/m²) were estimated. Both soil mechanical and chemical analyses were conducted for a composite soil sample. Study sites were categorized based on their visual vegetation cover (VC) percentage (%) into three

SUBMITTER: Osman HEM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9938500 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature