Assessing Soil Organic Carbon Stocks and Particle-Size Fractions across Cropping Systems in the Kiti Sub-Watershed in Central Benin

Abstract

Soil organic carbon storage in agricultural soil constitutes a crucial potential for sustainable agricultural productivity and climate change mitigation. This paper aimed at assessing soil organic carbon stock and its distribution in three particle size fractions across five cropping systems located in Kiti sub-watershed in Benin. Soil samples were collected using a grid sampling method on four soil depth layers: 0–10, 10–20, 20–30 and 30–40 cm in five cropping systems maize–cotton relay cropping (MCRC), yam–maize intercropping (YMI), teak plantation (TP), 5-year fallow (5YF) and above 10-year fallow (Ab10YF) from July to August 2017. Soil organic carbon stock (C stock) was estimated for the different soil layers and particle-size fractionation of soil organic matter was performed considering three fractions. The fractions coarse particulate organic matter (cPOM: 250–2000 µm), fine particulate organic matter (fPOM: 53–250 µm) and non-particulate organic matter (NOM: <53 µm) were separated from two soil depth layers: 0–10 and 10–20 cm. The results showed that fallow lands Ab10YF and 5YF exhibited the highest C stock, 22.20 and 17.74 Mg C·ha−1, while cultivated land under tillage MCRC depicted the lowest, C stock 11.48 Mg C·ha−1. The three organic carbon fractions showed a significant variation across the cropping systems with the NOM fraction holding the largest contribution to total soil organic carbon for all the cropping systems, ranging between 3.40 and 7.99 g/kg. The cPOM and fPOM were the most influenced by cropping systems with the highest concentration observed in Ab10YF and 5YF. The findings provide insights for upscaling farm management practices towards sustainable agricultural systems with substantial potential for carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation.