PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 8: Agro-Ecology.
Tuesday, August 5 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.
Soil carbon redistribution in an Iowa agroecosystem.
Ritchie, Jerry*,1, McCarty, Gregory2, Venteris, Erik2, 1 USDA ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, US2 USDA ARS Environmental Quality Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, US
ABSTRACT- Soil carbon is the largest component of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Soil carbon varies with climate, topography, biological activity, soil movement, and land management leading to large uncertainties in the soil carbon budget, especially in agricultural areas. This study was designed to determine soil carbon redistribution in an Iowa corn field as related to soil movement. Soil movement (erosion/deposition) was measured using radioactive fallout cesium-137. Soil organic carbon had an order of magnitude difference in concentration (0.5 to 5%) and was significantly correlated to soil cesium-137 concentration and soil erosion/deposition rates. Sites of soil erosion have lower concentrations of organic carbon (2.4 %) while sites of soil deposition within the field had higher concentrations of soil carbon (3.4 %). This study shows the importance of being able to measure soil redistribution patterns within a field to understand soil carbon patterns and the potential of developing or implementing better management systems to increase carbon sequestration in agricultural areas.
Key words: Cesium-137, Soil Carbon, Soil redistribution