TITLE:
SOC Turnover and Lime-CO2 Evolution during Liming of an Acid Andisol and Ultisol
AUTHORS:
Wilfredo A. Dumale Jr., Tsuyoshi Miyazaki, Kenta Hirai, Taku Nishimura
KEYWORDS:
Agricultural Liming, Soil Organic Carbon, SOC Turnover, Andisol, Ultisol
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Soil Science,
Vol.1 No.2,
September
30,
2011
ABSTRACT: Agricultural liming contributes significantly to atmospheric CO2 emission from soils but data on magnitude of lime- contributed CO2 in a wide range of acid soils are still few. Data on lime-contributed CO2 and SOC turnover for global acid soils are needed to estimate the potential contribution of agricultural liming to atmospheric CO2. Using Ca13CO3 (13C 99%) as lime and tracer, here we separated lime-contributed and SOC-originated CO2 evolution in an acidic Kuroboku Andisol from Tanashi, Tokyo Prefecture (35°44′ N, 139°32′ E) and Kunigami Mahji Ultisol of Nakijin, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan (26°38′ N, 127°58′ E). On the average, lime-CO2 was 76.84% (Kuroboku Andisol) and 66.36% (Kunigami Mahji Ultisol) of overall CO2 emission after 36 days. There was increased SOC turnover in all limed soils, confirming priming effect (PE) of liming. The calculated PE of lime (Kuroboku Andisol, 51.97% - 114.95%; Kunigami Mahji Ultisol, 10.13% - 35.61%) was entirely 12C turnover of stable soil organic carbon (SOC) since SMBC, a labile SOC pool, was suppressed by liming in our experiment. Our results confirmed that mineralization of lime-carbonates is the major source of CO2 emission from acid soils during agricultural liming. Liming can influence the size of CO2 evolution from agricultural ecosystems considering global extent of acid soils and current volume of lime utilization. We propose the inclusion of liming in simulating carbon dynamics in agricultural ecosystems.