Organic carbon and total nitrogen topsoil stocks, biogenetic natural reserve ‘Marchesale’ (Calabria region, southern Italy)

Abstract

It is essential estimating the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN) stocks and their spatial-temporal variations to understand the role of soil in ecosystem services and in the global cycles of carbon and nitrogen. This work was aimed to quantify and map the stocks of SOC and STN in topsoils in an area of the Biogenetic Natural Reserve 'Marchesale' (Calabria region, southern Italy). Forest soil samples (0-20 cm depth) were collected at 231 locations and analysed in laboratory for SOC and STN. Moreover, in all samples, bulk density (BD) and soil coarse fragments (SCFs) were determined. Geostatistics was used to map all soil properties (SOC, STN, BD and SCFs) and the stocks of SOC and STN. The mean stock values were 86.3 Mg ha −1 for SOC and 5.1 Mg ha −1 for STN. The total amounts stored in the study area (33.2 ha) were 2865.2 Mg for SOC and 170.1 Mg for STN. Although only the topsoil was considered, the accompanying maps (1:4000 scale) will be useful for the sustainable management of the Biogenetic Natural Reserve 'Marchesale' and for undertaking appropriate conservation plans to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Comparison of Topsoil Organic Carbon Stocks on Slopes under Soil-Protecting Forests in Relation to the Adjacent Agricultural Slopes

“…The negative correlation between soil organic carbon stocks and sand content is in agreement with many studies [53,54]. As indicated by Conforti et al [55], generally, soils with a high content of sand are well aerated and tend to have low soil moisture content, which is due to a rapid decomposition and a low stabilization of the organic carbon. As in some studies [56][57][58], we also found weak correlations between soil organic carbon stocks and clay content (mostly on agricultural slopes).…”

Application of Ordinary Kriging and Regression Kriging Method for Soil Properties Mapping in Hilly Region of Central Vietnam

“…There are various methods for interpolation of spatial distribution of SOC, TN and soil pH, such as inverse distance weighting (IDW) and ordinary kriging (OK) [9][10][11][12][13]. In recent years, researchers have suggested a combination of regression and spatial interpolation, called regression kriging (RK), to determine the spatial distribution of soil characteristics [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

Pedodiversity and Organic Matter Stock of Soils Developed on Sandstone Formations in the Northern Apennines (Italy)

“…where TOC or TN represents the contents of total organic carbon (%) and total nitrogen (%), BD is the bulk density (g cm −3 ), and sk is the coarse fragment content (Ø > 2 mm; %) by volume. BD was estimated according to the pedotransfer function proposed by Hollis et al [79] and broadly used for soils located within the Italian landscapes [80][81][82][83][84]. The presence of coarse fragments was recorded during the field survey [85].…”