Abstract:
Agricultural land use type and soil type are important factors affecting the content and stability of organic carbon in soil, understanding the effects of agricultural land use type and soil type on the spatial distribution of organic carbon and its fractions is a prerequisite for developing reasonable tillage management measures and improving soil carbon sequestration potential and soil quality in cultivated land. Based on the data of 164 topsoil (0-20 cm) sampling points collected on cropland in the Tuojiang River Basin, this study investigated the effects of agricultural land use type and soil type on the contents of total organic carbon (SOC), easily oxidized organic carbon (EOC) and refractory organic carbon (ROC) in cultivated soil using geostatistical method and variance analysis. The results show that ROC was the main SOC fraction in the cropland topsoil in the Tuojiang River Basin, which accounted for 80.93% of SOC. The average contents of EOC and ROC were 2.71 and 11.46 g·kg
-1, respectively, and the coefficient of variation ranged from 42.58% to 45.02%, representing a moderate degree of variation. Spatially, soil SOC, EOC and ROC contents were higher in the north, and lower in the south, and lower in the middle and high in the surrounding, which were jointly affected by structural and random factors. The results of variance analysis show that agricultural land use was an important factor affecting the content of soil organic carbon and its fractions. SOC, EOC and ROC contents were the highest in dryland-paddy rotation land, followed by paddy field, and the lowest in dryland. Soil type had a significant effects on the content of organic carbon and its fractions, with paddy soil showing the highest content, followed by yellow soil, and purple soil. The refractory organic carbon index (ROCI) of cropland soils in the Tuojiang River Basin is around 80%, suggesting a high stability of soil organic carbon in this basin. Among the three agricultural land use type the stability of soil organic carbon pool in paddy field was the highest, while paddy soil had the highest carbon pool stability among the three soil types.