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The Effect of Tillage on Soil Organic Matter Using 14C: A Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Randye L. Rutberg ,
David S. Schimel ,
Irena Hajdas  and
Wallace S. Broecker
Randye L. Rutberg
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Rte. 9W, Palisades, New York 10964-8000 USA
David S. Schimel
Affiliation:
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Box 3000, Boulder, Colorado 80307-3000 USA
Irena Hajdas
Affiliation:
Eidgenoissische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Hönggerberg, HPK/GI3, ITP, CH-8093 Switzerland
Wallace S. Broecker
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Rte. 9W, Palisades, New York 10964-8000 USA
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Abstract

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We compared four adjacent soil plots in an effort to determine the effect of land use on soil carbon storage. The plots were located at the High Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory near Sidney, Nebraska. We measured 14C, total carbon, total nitrogen and 137Ce to determine the size and turnover times of rapid and stable soil organic matter (SOM) pools, and their relation to land-use practices. Results were consistent with the model produced by Harrison, Broecker and Bonani (1993a) in that the 14C surface soil data fell on the time trend plots of world 14C surface soil data, indicating that the natural sod and non-tilled plots had a rapidly turning over SOM pool, comprising ca. 75% of surface soil carbon, and the tilled plots had a rapidly turning over SOM pool, comprising only 50% of surface soil carbon.

Type
14C and Soil Dynamics: Special Section
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , 1996 , pp. 209 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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