Does long-term center-pivot irrigation increase soil carbon stocks in semi-arid agro-ecosystems?

Tillage Effects on Soil Quality after Three Years of Irrigation in Northern Spain

“…In addition, inorganic C dynamics can be affected [47]. These observations are in line with previous studies conducted in other regions where changes in the total organic C stored in the soil have been observed following the adoption of irrigation [48,49]. These changes are not always related to changes in crop yields [50,51], as this is also related to soil type and crops management.…”

Carbon management in dryland agricultural systems. A review

“…While Entry et al (2004) and Wu et al (2009) reported a greater amount of soil inorganic carbon in irrigated treatments compared with native soils, Denef et al (2008) did not find significant difference in soil inorganic carbon between irrigated and dryland treatments. In turn, Halvorson and Schlegel (2012) found that under limited irrigation, soil inorganic carbon tends to increase with time in all soil depths, supporting the results by Blanco-Canqui et al (2010).…”

“…In some of those studies, soil inorganic carbon storage has proven to be significantly higher in cultivated dryland soils compared with native grassland soils (Cihacek and Ulmer 2002;Denef et al 2008), but the reduction of tillage may have differing effects in the long term. Hence, contrasting results have been obtained when comparing the amount of soil inorganic carbon under different types of tillage (Blanco-Canqui et al 2011;Moreno et al 2006;Sainju et al 2007).…”

“…The soils of these areas have an inherent low stock of organic carbon (C) due to climatic limitations. On the contrary, they contain a significant amount of inorganic C, of a persistent nature, mainly present in the form of soil carbonates (Denef et al 2008). Given the almost nonexistent chance for expanding irrigation in most dryland agroecosystems, other ways of land use optimization need to be identified (Hall and Richards 2013).…”

Evaluation of soil carbon stocks in response to management changes in sugarcane production

“…The drivers of these increases are enhanced physical protection of C within soil aggregates and higher soil organic matter (SOM) inputs (SIX et al, 2004, DENEF et al, 2008. While higher yields have been reported for irrigated sugarcane (WACLAWOVSKY et al, 2010;MONTEIRO;SENTELHAS, 2014), evaluations of soil C stock changes in irrigated sugarcane systems have not been found in the literature.…”