Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental SciencesThesis Defense Seminar

Soil Drainage Class Influences on

Soil Organic Carbon in a

New England Forested Watershed

Jay RaymondM.S. Student

AcknowledgementsCommittee:

Dr. Ivan J. Fernandez, Professor of Soil Science, Advisor

Dr. Tsutomu Ohno, Professor of Soil Chemistry

Dr. Kevin Simon, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences

Funding:

Maine Agricultural & Forest Experiment StationPlant, Soil, Environmental Sciences

Seminar Overview• Introduction

-Why?-Terrestrial C Cycle -Soil Drainage Classes

-Wetland Soils

- Forest Types

• Hypotheses

• Methods & Results-Site Location & Description-%C & C Content-C Fractions (Active, Stable, Passive)-Soil Respiration (RS)

• Conclusions

Lal, Kimble, and Follett, 1997

The Pedosphere Focus

Why Study Carbon?

tececo.com/sustainability.role_soil_sequestration.php

cargurus.com

boston.com

Sinks Sources

oregrinder.comteara.govt.nz/en/atmosphere/1/1

thew2o.net/

carboncycle.aos.wisc.edu/land-uptake/

C Emissions

Sources

Sinks

Soil Organic Carbon (SOC)

Kern, 1994; Johnson and Kern 2003; Amichev, 2003

NRCS

Soil Drainage Classes – NRCS (8)

soils.usda.gov/technical/handbook/contents/part618.html; Soil Survey Manual Ch. 3, MAPSS 2010

Excessively Drained (ED)

Somewhat excessively drained (SWED)

Well drained (WD)

Moderately well drained (MWD)

Somewhat poorly drained (SWPD)

Poorly drained (PD)

Very poorly drained (VPD)

Subaqueous (?)

INCREASING WETNESS

Moderately Well 25%

Well 20% Excessively

3%

Somewhat Excessively

3%Very Poorly 10%

Poorly20%

Somewhat Poorly19%

Maine Soil Drainage Classes

Source: NRCS

faculty.msmary.edu/envirothon/current/guide/soil_features_part_1.htm

Wetland (Hydric) Soils

- Histosol- > 40 cm (16”) O.M.- VPD nesoil.com/images/images.htm

- Histic epipedon- Mineral histic

- VPD – PD

- Mineral- PD

nesoil.com/images/images.htm

Hypothesessoil wetness increases, SOC increases

(decreasing drainage)

• %C, C content- PD > SWPD > MWD- CF > BLD

• C Fractions - Passive: MWD > SWPD > PD- Passive: BLD > CF

• RS - MWD > SWPD > PD start of season- SWPD > PD > MWD end of season- SWPD > MWD entire season

Site Location

Bear Brook Watershed in Maine (BBWM)

Adapted from : NRCS, Franklin County, ME Soil Survey

BraytonBrayton

Colonel

Colonel

DixfieldMarlow

Marlow

Tunbridge

Lyman

Marlow

Tunbridge

Abram

Rock Outcrop

Lyman

Dixfield

Tunbridge

Lyman

Gneiss, Schist, Granite and/or Phyllite Bedrock

Dense Glacial Till

Gneiss, Schist, G

ranite and/or P

hyllite Bedrock

Dense Glacial Till

Berkshire

Loose Glacial T

ill

Peacham

Site Description

SWPDPDMWD

CFCF

BLDBLD

Soil Drainage

Forest Types

Colonel : loamy, isotic, frigid,

shallow Aquic Haplorthods

Parent Material: non-calcareous compact Wisconsinan age basal till dominated by mica schist, phyllite, granite and gneiss

Elevations: 165 - 470 m

Aspect: Southeasterly

Slopes: Higher: steeps/benches, 31% avg. Lower: gentler, 15%. avg.

Tunbridge: coarse-loamy,

isotic, frigid, Typic Haplorthods

Dixfield: coarse-loamy,

isotic, frigid, Aquic Haplorthods

• red spruce • balsam fir

• American beech • sugar maple• paper birch

• sugar maple• paper birch• yellow birch

• eastern hemlock• northern white cedar• red spruce

• eastern hemlock• northern white cedar

• yellow birch • red maple• sugar maple

Brayton: loamy, mixed, active,

nonacid, frigid, shallow Aeric Endoaquepts

TunbridgeTunbridge

Lyman Lyman

Abram

Soil Drainage Classes (3)

MWD (6) SWPD (6) PD (6)

BLDCFBLDCFCF BLD

Experimental DesignSoil Drainage & Forest Type

Plot Design

15 m

71 cm

RS ,TAIR, TSOIL, GSM

- Monthly, May-Nov.

HWEC: O horizon, 0-5 cm

(late May, July, late October

15 m

71 cm

Quantitative Excavations

Digging

O horizon0-5

5-25

25-50

50-C

C

Weighing Sieving

Canary et al., 2000

Sample Processing • Greenhouse drying (1-2 weeks)• Sieving, weighing, moisture content• Soil physical-chemical analysis• %C

Total Soil C Content Calculation

%C100 *

oven dry fine earth increment mass

(kg ha-1)=

Total C of

Increment(kg ha-1)

1000 kg ha-1 = 1 Mg ha-1

Statistical Analysis • Statistical analysis conducted with R • Levene Test for homogeneity of variance

• Shapiro-Wilk normality test

• Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)- %C, C Content, C Fractions- Tukey HSD multiple comparison of means

• Repeated measures ANOVA- Rs

• Significant differences reported p < 0.05

% C

0

10

20

30

40

50

C Concentration (%C)

Soil Drainage Class

A A A

a

b b

Forest Type

a a

A

A

MWD SWPD PD CF BLD O M O M O M O M O M

%C with Depth – Soil Drainage

% C0 10 20 30 40

C

50-C

25-50 cm

5-25 cm

0-5 cm

O Horizon

MWDSWPDPD

a b b

%C

0 10 20 30 40 50

C

50-C

25-50

5-25 cm

0-5 cm

O Horizon

CFBLD

%C with Depth – Forest Type

Forest Type

MWD SWPD PD N.a.N. CF BLD0

100

200

300

400

C (M

g ha

-1)

C Content

a

a

a

a a

A

AB

B

A

B

a

a

a

a

ab

b

a

a

Soil Drainage Class

?

Summary

SOC was different - among soil drainage classes, but not as expected - forest types

• O Horizon: NSD

• Mineral Soil- MWD > SWPD, PD

• Entire Soil (O horizon + mineral)

- Drainage: MWD > PD- Forest : CF > BLD

Why? • Greater ecosystem productivity – belowground

- roots: MWD > PD- numerical data from QP- qualitative pedon descriptions effective rooting depth

C Fractionation Mineral Soil

Active• labile, or active (< 2 yrs)

Stable• intermediate (>2 - < 100’s yrs)

Passive• recalcitrant, extremely resistant C (>100’s yrs)

(Stevenson, 1994; Boyer and Groffman, 1996; Zsolnay, 2003) (Leavitt et al., 1996; Paul et al., 2006; D’Angelo et al, 2009) (Martel and Paul, 1974; Sollins et al.,1999; MacLauchlan and Hobbie, 2004)

C Fractionation – Sequential Extraction

Active C Fraction – HWEC (Ghani et al. 2003; D’Angelo et al. 2009)- Air dry soil in 50 ml tubes: 1:10 for O horizon, 1:2 mineral- Tubes in 80˚C for 16h- 0.4 µm polycarbonate filters- Measure TC w/ Shimadzu TOC 5050- Oven dry residue overnight

Passive Fraction – Acid Hydrolysis (Sollins et al., 1999; D’Angelo)

- 1 g soil w/ 6 M HCl. 1:20 organics, 1:10 mineral- Refluxed for 16 hrs in digestion tube at 116◦C- Filtered through Whatman no. 50 - Oven dry residue overnight, send to lab for %C

Stable Fraction = (%C Original Sample) - (Passive %C) – (Active %C)

C FractionsProportion of Total C

Stable C Fraction 69%

Passive C Fraction31%

Active C Fraction < 1%

Fig. 4. Overall mean of the mineral soil for the active, stable, and passive C fractions across all soils in this study.

Soil Organic Carbon Fraction

Passive Stable Active

% C

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

MWDSWPDPD

C Fractions - %C

a

b b

a

b b

a b b

Passive Stable Active

C (M

g ha

-1)

0

50

100

150

200

250MWDSWPDPDCF

C Fractions – C Content

BLD

b

b

a b b

a

a

a

a

a b

b

a

a a

Why? • Similar aerobic conditions in upper soil horizons

Zone of saturationSeasonal HWT

April May June July August September October NovemberMarch

Zone of saturationSeasonal HWT

Zone of saturationSeasonal HWT

Soil Respiration (Rs) Methods• Collars installed March-April 2010 (5” PVC pipe)

• Monthly measurements w/ Li-Cor 6400-09- May-June until Oct.-Nov.

• Total 72 collars for this study – 3 days - (4/plot * 3 plots/drainage * 2 forest types) - 3 days of measurement- measurements 8am-1pm

• Additional variables measured- Gravimetric soil moisture (GSM) - O & 0-5 cm- Air temp (TAIR)- Soil temp – top 10 cm (TSOIL)- Seasonal HWEC

May-June July August Sept. Oct.-Nov.

RSO

IL (µ

mol

m-2

s-1)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

MWDSWPD PD

Soil Respiration

(a) (ab)

(b)

Conclusions• SOC different - soil drainage classes & forest types - MWD > SWPD, PD- CF > BLD - belowground productivity (roots) & coarse fragments- wetland type matters (O vs. mineral)

• Similar SOC dynamics in aerobic near surface soil- distribution of C in fractions similar drainage/forest

• Some imperfectly drained soils (SWPD, PD) could be

robust to extremes in moisture stress

• Complexity of forested landscapes- soil drainage, forest types, parent material, wetland type, land use

history

Acknowledgements

Sean Hutchinson

Matt Labonty

Nick Berry

Hope Hopkins

Chris, Sara, Morgan, Sarah, Ben

Cheryl Spencer

Bruce Hoskins, Analytical Lab

Mike, Farrah, Andrea, Sarah, Erin

Chris Dorion

Dr. Ivan Fernandez

Anja Whittington

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