Comparison of wheat and safflower cultivation areas in terms of total carbon and some soil properties under semi-arid climate conditions

B Turgut

doi:10.5194/se-6-719-2015

Abstract

Abstract. The aim of this study was to compare the soils of the wheat cultivation area (WCA) and the safflower cultivation area (SCA) within semi-arid climate zones in terms of their total carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur contents, particle size distribution, aggregate stability, organic matter content, and pH values. This study presents the results from the analyses of 140 soil samples taken at two soil layers (0–10 and 10–20 cm) in the cultivation areas. At the end of the study, it was established that there were significant differences between the cultivation areas in terms of soil physical properties such as total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), total sulphur (TS) contents and pH, while only the TN content was significantly different between the two soil layers. Moreover, significant differences were identified between the cultivation areas in terms of soil physical properties including clay and sand contents, aggregate stability, and organic matter content, whereas the only significant difference found among the soil layers was that of their silt content. Since safflower contains higher amounts of biomass than wheat, we found higher amounts of organic matter content and, therefore, higher amounts of TN and TS content in the soils of the SCA. In addition, due to the fact that wheat contains more cellulose – which takes longer to decompose – the TC content of the soil in the WCA was found to be higher than that in the SCA. The results also revealed that the WCA had a higher carbon storage capacity.

Highlights

Soil-forming process have significant effects on soil properties (Ubalde et al, 2011)
As for the safflower cultivation area (SCA), the results revealed that the texture was that of clay and clay loam, and was considered to be very good in terms of aggregate stability, its high organic matter content and being light alkaline in terms of pH
The coefficient of variation (CV) values for studied soil properties were less than 50 %, while the lowest CV was observed for pH and the highest was observed for the total sulphur (TS)

Summary

Introduction

Soil-forming process have significant effects on soil properties (Ubalde et al, 2011). Plant roots’ influence on physical soil properties such as aggregate formation, compaction, and infiltration rate can be described as the direct effects of plants (Reid and Goss, 1981; Miller and Jastrow, 1990; Angers and Caron, 1998; Milleret et al, 2009). Having completed their natural life cycles, plants begin to decompose in the soil and thereby become one of the main sources of organic matter, which in turn provides a positive contribution to the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils (Karaman et al, 2013; Rowell, 1994; Turgut and Aksakal, 2011; Wang et al, 2014; Huang et al, 2015)

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Conclusion