Soil organic carbon stocks are systematically overestimated by misuse of the parameters bulk density and rock fragment content

Estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks requires estimates of the carbon content, bulk density, rock fragment content and depth of a respective soil layer. However, different application of these parameters could introduce a considerable bias. Here, we explain why three out of four frequently...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soil 2017-01, Vol.3 (1), p.61-66
Main Authors: Poeplau, Christopher, Vos, Cora, Axel, Don
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Bias
Bulk density
Carbon
Carbon content
Estimates
Fragments
Methods
Organic carbon
Organic soils
Parameters
Rocks
Soil
Soil layers
Soils
Stocks
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Summary:Estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks requires estimates of the carbon content, bulk density, rock fragment content and depth of a respective soil layer. However, different application of these parameters could introduce a considerable bias. Here, we explain why three out of four frequently applied methods overestimate SOC stocks. In soils rich in rock fragments (> 30 vol. %), SOC stocks could be overestimated by more than 100 %, as revealed by using German Agricultural Soil Inventory data. Due to relatively low rock fragments content, the mean systematic overestimation for German agricultural soils was 2.1–10.1 % for three different commonly used equations. The equation ensemble as re-formulated here might help to unify SOC stock determination and avoid overestimation in future studies.
ISSN:2199-398X
2199-3971
2199-398X
2199-3971
DOI:10.5194/soil-3-61-2017