Evaluation of Dissolved Organic Carbon as a Soil Quality Indicator in National Monitoring Schemes

Abstract

BackgroundMonitoring the properties of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in soil water is frequently used to evaluate changes in soil quality and to explain shifts in freshwater ecosystem functioning.MethodsUsing >700 individual soils (0–15 cm) collected from a 209,331 km2 area we evaluated the relationship between soil classification (7 major soil types) or vegetation cover (8 dominant classes, e.g. cropland, grassland, forest) and the absorbance properties (254 and 400 nm), DOC quantity and quality (SUVA, total soluble phenolics) of soil water.ResultsOverall, a good correlation (r 2 = 0.58) was apparent between soil water absorbance and DOC concentration across the diverse range of soil types tested. In contrast, both DOC and the absorbance properties of soil water provided a poor predictor of SUVA or soluble phenolics which we used as a measure of humic substance concentration. Significant overlap in the measured ranges for UV absorbance, DOC, phenolic content and especially SUVA of soil water were apparent between the 8 vegetation and 7 soil classes. A number of significant differences, however, were apparent within these populations with total soluble phenolics giving the greatest statistical separation between both soil and vegetation groups.ConclusionsWe conclude that the quality of DOC rather than its quantity provides a more useful measure of soil quality in large scale surveys.

Assessing soil quality of gleyed paddy soils with different productivities in subtropical China

“…Thus, the quality of soil organic C (i.e., MBC) rather than its quantity provides a more useful measure of soil quality. Similar findings were also observed by other authors (Haynes, 2005;Jones et al, 2014). Finally, MBC was selected for the MDS.…”

Primer and Database Choice Affect Fungal Functional but Not Biological Diversity Findings in a National Soil Survey

“…In comparison to AVC and SOM levels, differences in fungal communities were not as clear across soil types as defined by the National Soil Map (Avery, 1980), which is inline with previous work on microbial activity across the UK (Jones et al, 2014). Richness was highest in brown soils and was lowest in peats.…”

The dissolved organic matter as a potential soil quality indicator in arable soils of Hungary

“…Although DOM is considered to be a potential quality indicator for arable soils (Haynes and Tregurtha, 1999;Haynes, 2000;Silveira, 2005) and an effort by Jones et al (2014) to investigate whether different soil classes and vegetation cover types having different DOC concentrations, the evaluation and validation of DOM with a complex quality indicator has not yet been reported. In this paper, the dissolved organic matter in soils was evaluated as a potential soil quality indicator, and its limitations were shown on 190 Hungarian agricultural soils.…”