Soil carbon storage under different types of arid land use in Algeria

This study aims to assess the amount of organic carbon stored in soils, as it is an intention of knowing the sustainable soil management, by using two common methods for determining soil organic matter (SOM), namely oxidation with acidified wet dichromate (Walkley–Black method-WB) and loss on igniti...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Benslama, Abderraouf; Fouzi, BENBRAHIM; Lydia Rym, Gadoum; Gómez Lucas, Ignacio; Jordan Vidal, Manuel M.; Navarro-Pedreño, Jose; Bech, Jaume
Format: Article
Publication date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
Repository:REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMH
OAI Identifier:oai:dspace.umh.es:11000/34627
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11000/34627
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Arid conditions
Forestry
Loss on ignition method
Pastoral
Soil organic matter
Walkley
Black method
CDU::6 - Ciencias aplicadas::62 - Ingeniería. Tecnología
Description
Summary:This study aims to assess the amount of organic carbon stored in soils, as it is an intention of knowing the sustainable soil management, by using two common methods for determining soil organic matter (SOM), namely oxidation with acidified wet dichromate (Walkley–Black method-WB) and loss on ignition (LOI). The study was carried with soil samples collected from a depth of 0 to 30 cm in the Saharan arid region of Ghardaïa (Algeria), with different land uses: agricultural, forest and pastoral. The results obtained from the LOI and WB methods were subjected to statistical analysis, and the relations between both methods were tested to investigate their relationship. The mean percentage of SOM values were 1.86, 2.42, 1.54 by using LOI, but, lower values of 0.34, 0.33, 0.36 were determined by using WB method, for agricultural, forest and pastoral soils respectively. A weak linear relationship between the two analytical procedures was obtained ( R2 of 0.19 and 0.13 for agricultural and forest soils), while a medium relationship ( R2 = 0.65) was found for pastoral soils when using linear adjustment. However, the opposite behaviour was found when we use the logarithmic adjustment. The study outcomes indicated discrepancies in the measurements of SOM values between the two methods, been higher those estimated with LOI. Finally, in order to identify the best methodology to measure soil organic matter in arid soils, more research is required in these extreme arid regions as they are a gap in world soil organic matter maps.