Abstract: Measuring Sequestered Carbon Contents of Grassland and Forest Soil Profiles in the NEON Initiative. (ASA, CSSA and SSSA International Annual Meetings)

129-5 Measuring Sequestered Carbon Contents of Grassland and Forest Soil Profiles in the NEON Initiative.

See more from this Division: SSSA Division: Forest, Range & Wildland Soils
See more from this Session: The National Ecological Observatory Network: A Continental-Scale Approach for Studying Soil Biology, Biogeochemistry, and Ecohydrology: I

Monday, November 3, 2014: 2:05 PM

Long Beach Convention Center, Room 102B

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Elham Ghabbour¹, Geoffrey Davies¹, Millicent T Croman¹, Abeer A Sayeed¹ and Edward Ayres², (1)Northeastern University, Boston, MA
(2)NEON, Boulder, CO

Measuring Sequestered Carbon Contents of Grassland and Forest Soil Profiles in the NEON Initiative

Elham A. Ghabbour,¹ Geoffrey Davies,¹ Abeer A. Sayeed,¹ Millicent T. Croman¹ and Edward Ayres²

¹National Soil Project, Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115-5000

²National Ecological Observatory Network, Boulder, CO 80301

The National Soil Project (NSP) has measured the total and sequestered OM contents of soil horizons from all US States since 2008 [1]. The data establish a baseline C content of a soil and represent its quality and health. This NEON/NSP collaboration reports the total and sequestered OM contents of 11 grassland and forest profiles in 8 US States at elevations of 25 to 1548 m and seven soil orders to depths of 160-200 cm. Such soils are standards against which farm soils can be compared. Humic acid (HA) is measured gravimetrically [1]; fulvic acid (FA) and sequestered DOC are measured spectrophometrically [2]. Major findings are: 1) the data are mostly reproducible; 2) sequestration drops sharply below the A horizon; 3) spodosol (E) horizons exist in 8 profiles; 4) regression of FA against HA in the Harvard Forest profile has a slope of 0.38 (cf. 0.29 for Maine profiles [2]); 5) decreasing FA/HA with percent sequestration suggests that FA are precursors of HA.

NSP thanks the VK Rasmussen Foundation and the Farmers Advocating for Organics Fund for financial support.

[1] Ghabbour EA, Davies G, Daggett, Jr. JL, Worgul CA, Wyant GA, Sayedbagheri Mir-M. Measuring the humic acid contents of commercial lignites and agricultural top soils in the National Soil Project. Annal. Environ. Sci., 6: 1-12 (2012); [2] Ghabbour EA, Davies G, Sayeed AA, Jenkins T. Measuring the retained water and sequestered organic carbon contents of soil profiles in Aroostook and Piscataquis Counties, Maine, USA. Soil Horizons 54: 1-7 (2013) doi:10.2136/sh13-05-0012 and references therein.

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