Relating soil C and organic matter fractions to structural stability

Jensen, J. L.
Schjonning, P.
Watts, C. W.
Christensen, B. T.
Peltre, C.
Munkholm, L.

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Publication date

January 2019

DOI

10.1016/j.geoderma.2018.10.034

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Abstract

Soil organic matter (SOM) is important for maintaining soil structural stability (SSS). The influence of soil organic carbon (SOC) and different organic matter components on various SSS measures were quantified. We used a silt loam soil with a wide range of SOC(0.0080-0.0427 kg kg-1 minerals) sampled in spring 2015 from the Highfield Ley-Arable Long-Term Experiment at Rothamsted Research. Four treatments were sampled: Bare fallow, continuous arable rotation, ley-arable rotation, and grass. Soils were tested for clay dispersibility (DispClay), clay-SOM disintegration (DI, the ratio between clay content without and with SOM removal) and dispersion of particles <20 μm. The SSS tests were related to SOC, permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC), h...