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There is ample evidence to suggest that liming can regulate soil organic carbon (SOC) pools either directly through influencing the solubility of SOC or indirectly by altering total organic C input as crop residue and SOC loss via change in microbial activity. The aim of this study was to determine the long-term impact of lime application on the quantity and quality of SOC in acid soils. Soils were collected at depths of 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, and 40-50 cm from four long-term lime trials with various lime rates (0-25 t ha), lime histories (5-35 years), and soil textures (clay content 5-36 %). Surface application of lime was effective in ameliorating both topsoil and subsoil acidities at sites with low clay content. Liming decreased dissolved organic C (DOC) at 0-30 cm but increased its aromaticity. Total SOC at 0-10 cm decreased or remained unchanged following long-term liming, depending on the rates of lime application and crop management. Changes in the contents of particulate organic C (POC) and humic organic C (HOC) predicted by mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) showed a similar trend to total SOC at all sites. Lime application had no significant effect on SOC below 10-cm layers and on the MIR-predicted resistant organic C (ROC) fraction. Solid-state C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra indicated that the alkyl C content and alkyl/O-alkyl C ratio were lower in the limed than unlimed plots. Liming possibly had a marked effect on regulating the decomposition and preservation of certain C compounds. The apparent accumulation of alkyl C in the unlimed soil could indicate the potential ability of acid soils to store SOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil carbon (C) models are important tools for understanding soil C balance and projecting C stocks in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly under global change. The initialization and/or parameterization of soil C models can vary among studies even when the same model and data set are used, causing potential uncertainties in projections. Although a few studies have assessed such uncertainties, it is yet unclear what these uncertainties are correlated with and how they change across varying environmental and management conditions. Here, applying a process-based biogeochemical model to 90 individual field experiments (ranging from 5 to 82 years of experimental duration) across the Australian cereal-growing regions, we demonstrated that well-designed optimization procedures enabled the model to accurately simulate changes in measured C stocks, but did not guarantee convergent forward projections (100 years). Major causes of the projection uncertainty were due to insufficient understanding of how microbial processes and soil C pool change to modulate C turnover. For a given site, the uncertainty significantly increased with the magnitude of future C input and years of the projection. Across sites, the uncertainty correlated positively with temperature but negatively with rainfall. On average, a 331 % uncertainty in projected C sequestration ability can be inferred in Australian agricultural soils. This uncertainty would increase further if projections were made for future warming and drying conditions. Future improvement in soil C modelling should focus on how the microbial community and its C use efficiency change in response to environmental changes, and better conceptualization of heterogeneous soil C pools and the C transformation among those pools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An accurate measurement of soil pH buffer capacity (pHBC) is essential for estimating lime requirement and predicting soil acidification in farming systems. The soil pHBC is commonly determined by acid-base titration (1:5 soil : solution); however, no standardized equilibration time, type of acid and alkali or concentration of electrolyte has been recommended. This study aimed to establish a standard procedure that is relatively method-independent and reflects the actual soil pH buffering ability. Nineteen soils with a wide range of pH, clay and organic carbon contents were used. Measuring pHBC in a 0.01 m CaCl2 suspension minimized the effects of both ionic strength and cation valence after addition of different types and rates of alkalis and acids. The time required to reach near equilibrium (1 hour to 28 days) was greatly expedited by sonication pretreatment. For soils with a large carbon content, biological reactions alone could elevate soil pHBC and addition of biocides was essential during pHBC measurement. When compared with two commonly used methods, 1:1 soil :water extraction and field moist incubation, the 1:5 CaCl2 method was less affected by ionic strength and biological activity, and more suitable for use as a standard method.We recommend using 0.01m CaCl2 at a soil-to-solution ratio of 1:5, with addition of HCl and NaOH or Ca(OH)2, chloroform and sonication for pHBC determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of sequestering carbon are many, including improved crop productivity, reductions in greenhouse gases, and financial gains through the sale of carbon credits. Achieving better understanding of the sequestration process has motivated many deterministic models of soil carbon dynamics, but none of these models address uncertainty in a comprehensive manner. Uncertainty arises in many ways-around the model inputs, parameters, and dynamics, and subsequently model predictions. In this paper, these uncertainties are addressed in concert by incorporating a physical-statistical model for carbon dynamics within a Bayesian hierarchical modelling framework. This comprehensive approach to accounting for uncertainty in soil carbon modelling has not been attempted previously. This paper demonstrates proof-of-concept based on a one-pool model and identifies requirements for extension to multi-pool carbon modelling. Our model is based on the soil carbon dynamics in Tarlee, South Australia. We specify the model conditionally through its parameters, soil carbon input and decay processes and observations of those processes. We use a particle marginal Metropolis-Hastings approach specified using the LibBi modelling language. We highlight how samples from the posterior distribution can be used to summarise our knowledge about model parameters, to estimate the probabilities of sequestering carbon and to forecast changes in carbon stocks under crop rotations not represented explicitly in the original field trials. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon chemistry of 10 profiles of peat soil has been described in detail using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The changes with depth in the allocation of signal to different carbon functional groups were consistent with an increase in the extent of decomposition (EOD) of the organic material with depth. This increase in EOD with depth is typical of peat soils. Incubation experiments were carried out on peats spanning the range of EODs encountered, to investigate the effect upon mineralization of substrate quality (as defined by 13C NMR spectroscopy), water content and particle size. The confounding factors of depth, water content, bulk density, aeration and carbon content were eliminated by incubating ground peat material in a sand matrix. The size of the mineralizable carbon pool and the rate of carbon mineralization were both significantly affected by substrate quality, water content and particle size. Substrate quality had the greatest effect upon the size of the mineralizable carbon pool: as substrate quality decreased, so too did the size of the mineralizable carbon pool. Water content had the greatest effect upon the rate of carbon mineralization, which increased and then decreased as water content increased, with a maximum rate constant at a volumetric water content of 0.37 cm3 cm−3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is still much uncertainty as to how wildfire affects the accumulation of burn residues (such as black carbon (BC)) in the soil, and the corresponding changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) composition in boreal forests. We investigated SOC and BC composition in black spruce forests on different landscape positions in Alaska, USA. Mean BC stocks in surface mineral soils (0.34 ± 0.09 kg C m) were higher than in organic soils (0.17 ± 0.07 kg C m), as determined at four sites by three different C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy-based techniques. Aromatic carbon, protein, BC, and the alkyl:O-alkyl carbon ratio were higher in mineral soil than in organic soil horizons. There was no trend between mineral soil BC stocks and fire frequencies estimated from lake sediment records at four sites, and soil BC was relatively modern (<54–400 years, based on mean ΔC ranging from 95.1 to −54.7‰). A more extensive analysis (90 soil profiles) of mineral soil BC revealed that interactions among landscape position, organic layer depth, and bulk density explained most of the variance in soil BC across sites, with less soil BC occurring in relatively cold forests with deeper organic layers. We suggest that shallower organic layer depths and higher bulk densities found in warmer boreal forests are more favorable for BC production in wildfire, and more BC is integrated with mineral soil than organic horizons. Soil BC content likely reflected more recent burning conditions influenced by topography, and implications of this for SOC composition (e.g., aromaticity and protein content) are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide emissions and the mass loss of peat incubated in situ were measured in peat soils in the Australian Alps. The carbon chemistry of incubated peats was characterized using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). In situ decomposition decreased as a function of increasing alkyl carbon content of the initial organic matter, providing direct evidence of the oft-cited link between substrate quality and decomposition rates. More mass loss occurred in the bog peat samples than in the dried peat samples. However, at the peat surface, the amount of CO2 emitted was not significantly different between bog peat and dried peat. Carbon inputs, and therefore the sink or source status, of these peats are yet to be quantified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]