Presented by

Alexandre Cardoso
Dept. of Crop & Soil Sciences

Tuesday, February 8, 2000
3:30-4:30 PM
135 Emerson Hall

Abstract

Soil organic matter (SOM) is a key component in productive sustainable systems, in addition to its role in global climate change. Compartmental models have been developed to express the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) in different systems, emphasizing a diverse series of controls. The evaluation of the effects of tillage, soil aggregation and associated soil properties (mineralogy and texture) as controls on SOC dynamics was the focus of this project. SOM dynamics were examined in a tillage experiment in northern New York State and in Oxisols from Brazil under different land-uses. A physical fractionation procedure was employed to obtain particulate and mineral associated OM, and the 13C natural abundance technique was used to evaluate the contribution of crop derived carbon to total SOC and to SOC in aggregate size classes and SOM fractions.