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Topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes

Large uncertainties in global carbon (C) budgets stem from soil carbon estimates and associated challenges in distributing soil organic carbon (SOC) at local to landscape scales owing to lack of information on soil thickness and controls on SOC storage. Here we show that 94% of the fine-scale variat...

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Autores principales: Patton, Nicholas R., Lohse, Kathleen A., Seyfried, Mark S., Godsey, Sarah E., Parsons, Susan B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6478868/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31015573
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42556-5
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author Patton, Nicholas R.
Lohse, Kathleen A.
Seyfried, Mark S.
Godsey, Sarah E.
Parsons, Susan B.
author_facet Patton, Nicholas R.
Lohse, Kathleen A.
Seyfried, Mark S.
Godsey, Sarah E.
Parsons, Susan B.
author_sort Patton, Nicholas R.
collection PubMed
description Large uncertainties in global carbon (C) budgets stem from soil carbon estimates and associated challenges in distributing soil organic carbon (SOC) at local to landscape scales owing to lack of information on soil thickness and controls on SOC storage. Here we show that 94% of the fine-scale variation in total profile SOC within a 1.8 km(2) semi-arid catchment in Idaho, U.S.A. can be explained as a function of aspect and hillslope curvature when the entire vertical dimension of SOC is measured and fine-resolution (3 m) digital elevation models are utilized. Catchment SOC stocks below 0.3 m depth based on our SOC-curvature model account for >50% of the total SOC indicating substantial underestimation of stocks if sampled at shallower depths. A rapid assessment method introduced here also allows for accurate catchment-wide total SOC inventory estimation with a minimum of one soil pit and topographic data if spatial distribution of total profile SOC is not required. Comparison of multiple datasets shows generality in linear SOC-curvature and -soil thickness relationships at multiple scales. We conclude that mechanisms driving variations in carbon storage in hillslope catchment soils vary spatially at relatively small scales and can be described in a deterministic fashion given adequate topographic data.
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spelling pubmed-64788682019-05-03 Topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes Patton, Nicholas R. Lohse, Kathleen A. Seyfried, Mark S. Godsey, Sarah E. Parsons, Susan B. Sci Rep Article Large uncertainties in global carbon (C) budgets stem from soil carbon estimates and associated challenges in distributing soil organic carbon (SOC) at local to landscape scales owing to lack of information on soil thickness and controls on SOC storage. Here we show that 94% of the fine-scale variation in total profile SOC within a 1.8 km(2) semi-arid catchment in Idaho, U.S.A. can be explained as a function of aspect and hillslope curvature when the entire vertical dimension of SOC is measured and fine-resolution (3 m) digital elevation models are utilized. Catchment SOC stocks below 0.3 m depth based on our SOC-curvature model account for >50% of the total SOC indicating substantial underestimation of stocks if sampled at shallower depths. A rapid assessment method introduced here also allows for accurate catchment-wide total SOC inventory estimation with a minimum of one soil pit and topographic data if spatial distribution of total profile SOC is not required. Comparison of multiple datasets shows generality in linear SOC-curvature and -soil thickness relationships at multiple scales. We conclude that mechanisms driving variations in carbon storage in hillslope catchment soils vary spatially at relatively small scales and can be described in a deterministic fashion given adequate topographic data. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-04-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6478868/ /pubmed/31015573 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42556-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Patton, Nicholas R.
Lohse, Kathleen A.
Seyfried, Mark S.
Godsey, Sarah E.
Parsons, Susan B.
Topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes
title Topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes
title_full Topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes
title_fullStr Topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes
title_full_unstemmed Topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes
title_short Topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes
title_sort topographic controls of soil organic carbon on soil-mantled landscapes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6478868/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31015573
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42556-5
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