Soil organic matter dynamics in Portuguese natural and sown rainfed grasslands

Soil organic matter (SOM) is a particularly important parameter in soil management, especially in mineral soils in Mediterranean and semi-arid countries where its concentration is low. In these conditions, increasing SOM concentration has several agronomic and environmental benefits, ranging from in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecological modelling 2011-02, Vol.222 (4), p.993-1001
Main Authors: Teixeira, R.F.M., Domingos, T., Costa, A.P.S.V., Oliveira, R., Farropas, L., Calouro, F., Barradas, A.M., Carneiro, J.P.B.G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Asymptotic properties
Biodiversity
Biological and medical sciences
Calibration
carbon sequestration
ecosystem services
Fertility
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Techniques
Grasslands
Land use
legumes
Mathematical models
Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...)
mineral soils
Mineralization
Modelling
pastures
permanent grasslands
Soil (material)
soil analysis
soil management
Soil organic matter
Soil science
Trends
water holding capacity
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Summary:Soil organic matter (SOM) is a particularly important parameter in soil management, especially in mineral soils in Mediterranean and semi-arid countries where its concentration is low. In these conditions, increasing SOM concentration has several agronomic and environmental benefits, ranging from increase in water holding capacity to soil protection and carbon sequestration. We develop a model to express the short-term trend of SOM increase in grasslands as the balance between input and mineralization. This model is calibrated using five years of soil analyses from eight locations. In each location there were either two or three plots with the different grassland systems considered: sown biodiverse permanent pastures rich in legumes (SBPPRLs), fertilized natural grasslands (FNGs), and (un-improved) natural grasslands (NGs). SBPPRL are a new system consisting in the use of plant biodiversity to increase pasture productivity and resilience. So far, they exist mostly in Portugal. We use statistical calibration to adjust an asymptotic curve to the data and obtain the model parameters. Under the assumption of equal mineralization rates across grassland systems, we find that the expected steady-state long term SOM concentration in undisturbed SBPPRL is higher than in NG and FNG. Fertilization does not significantly increase SOM input, and so the trend in SOM is equal for NG and FNG. In 10 years, there is an average increase of 0.21 percentage points per year in SBPPRL. In turn, SOM increases in FNG and NG are 0.08 percentage points per year.
ISSN:0304-3800
1872-7026
DOI:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2010.11.013