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ARS Home » Plains Area » Mandan, North Dakota » Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #386208
Research Project: Sustainable Agricultural Systems for the Northern Great Plains

Location: Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory

Title: Rapid formation of abiotic CO2 results from additions of a simple phenolic, gallic acid, to soil

Author
item Halvorson, Jonathan
item Jin, Virginia
item Liebig, Mark
item LUCIANO, ROBERTO - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA)
item HAGERMAN, ANN - Miami University - Ohio
item SCHMIDT, MICHAEL - Wright State University

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/7/2021
Publication Date: 12/7/2021
Citation: Halvorson, J.J., Jin, V.L., Liebig, M.A., Luciano, R., Hagerman, A.E., Schmidt, M.A. 2021. Rapid formation of abiotic CO2 results from additions of a simple phenolic, gallic acid, to soil. Meeting Abstract. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10509127.1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10509127.1

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Abiotic efflux of CO2 from soil is most often attributed to dissolution of carbonates, and therefore not expected to occur in soils with a low pH. However, another abiotic source of CO2, less constrained by pH, may arise from reactions in soil that oxidize natural soil organic matter and reduce metal oxides. Studies of redox reactions between phenolic compounds and Fe and Mn oxides in soil have been focused mainly on the environmental fate of both oxidants and reductants and formation of organic matter. We measured CO2 formed during 3-hour, room temperature (22±2 oC), incubations of samples of archived soils and from an ongoing crop diversity study. Subsamples (8 g. ODE) of each soil, were treated (5 ml) with water, or solutions of glucose (0.029 M), or gallic acid (0.025 M). For each soil, subsamples amended with H2O or with the glucose solution produced little CO2 and were nearly identical to each other, while CO2 quickly formed after treatment with gallic acid regardless of pH. The net increase in CO2 due to gallic acid, observed from the 18 archived soils, ranged from less than 0.5 to more than 80 mg CO2-C kg-1 soil. Significant treatment effects were observed in samples from the crop diversity study with more (Tukey’s P=0.05) net CO2 from a small grain-fallow treatment compared a 5-year rotation treatment, 19.04 and 15.77 mg CO2-C kg-1 soil, respectively. This study suggests abiotic reactions capable of rapidly producing a burst of CO2 can occur in a wide range of soils following inputs of simple phenolic compounds and be impacted by management regimes. We suggest these are redox reactions in soil linked to Mn or Fe metal oxides and when considered together with fluctuations of carbon inputs to soil and redox cycling, might be a larger contributor to C emissions than accounted for.