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Use of labile C pools as early indicators for changes in C stocks of arable soils in North Rhine-Westphalia
Project
Project code: II A 1 F 41.2014.03
Contract period: 09.04.2014
- 14.07.2015
Budget: 33,924 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
The evaluation of > 7000 soil organic carbon (SOC) data of arable soils in North Rhine-Westphalia during the period 1979 – 2002 revealed a decreasing trend for SOC in most regions of NRW since the 1990ies (PREGER et al. 2006). So there is a cause for concern that our arable soils lose C and increase the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere, thus accelerating climate change. Since C stocks of soil change very slowly, a long-term monitoring is indispensable. In order to detect changes at an early stage, so our central hypothesis, the temporal Dynamics of labile C pools have to be quantified, because these pools are more responsive to changes in soil management or climate. The main topic of the project therefore is, to compare different procedures for the characterization of labile C pools and to optimize suitable techniques. The project includes mainly three working packages. (I) Comparative fractionation of particulate organic matter (POM) with samples, which were/are taken in 2004 and 2013 at about 300 sites in the Cologne-Bonn region. (II) Comparison of our common POM fractionation (used for NRW) with the density fractionation favored by the VTI (used for the BRD) procedure in due consideration of seasonal fluctuations and changing weather conditions. (III) Usage of near and mid infrared spectroscopy for the characterization of labile C pools including evaluation of spectra with machine learning techniques.
Section overview
Subjects
- Soil science
- Climate Change
