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Title: TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF ORGANIC CARBON IN PASTORAL AND CROPPED SOILS AT THE NORTH APPALACHIAN EXPERIMENTAL WATERSHEDS

Author
item HAO, Y - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
item LAL, R - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
item Owens, Lloyd
item IZAURRALDE, R - PACIFIC NW NATIONAL LAB

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/17/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Feasibility of increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) content by improving agricultural land uses for pasture and crop production depends on the rate of SOC change with time upon conversion to recommended land use and soil/crop management practices. At the North Appalachian Experimental Watershed research station near Coshocton, OH, the SOC content has been measured periodically since 1970, allowing estimation of the rate of change of SOC content for different land uses and management practices. For three medium fertility pasture watersheds established in 1939, the SOC contents (Mg/ha) in the top 30 cm did not change over time from 1970 to 1998, indicating that the equilibrium SOC content had been reached within the 30 years of the pastoral land use from 1939 to 1970. For three high fertility pasture watersheds converted from conventional moldboard tillage corn-wheat-meadow-meadow rotation in 1972 to 1975, there occurred a linear increase in SOC content at the rate of 0.42 to 0.64 Mg/ha in the top 30 cm soils between 1970 and 1998. Two cropped watersheds were converted in 1984 from conventional moldboard or no tillage continuous corn to conservation tillage corn-soybean rotation. The SOC contents measured from 1984 to 1999 did not change over time for the top 30 cm soils, but a linear increase at the rate of 0.35 Mg/ha/yr for the 0-15 cm layer occurred in the watershed in which the previous land use was the conventional moldboard tillage continuous. The observed rates of increase in SOC content increase in the top 15 to 45 cm layer by conversion to recommended practices have important implications in sequestering atmospheric CO2 through conversion tillage and crop rotations in the North Appalachian region.