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- Title
Soil organic carbon data comparison after 85 years and new <sup>13</sup>C/<sup>12</sup>C compositions: The case study of the Ferrara province (Northeastern Italy).
- Authors
Salani, Gian Marco; Bianchini, Gianluca; Brombin, Valentina; Natali, Claudio
- Abstract
The main causes of soil organic matter (SOM) loss are land use (e.g., conventional agriculture) and land‐use change (e.g., conversion of wetlands into croplands). Before World War II and until 1960s, the Ferrara province in the Emilia‐Romagna region (Northeast Italy) enlarged its agricultural production area through drainage of wetlands. After that, the newly drained area was put into intensive agricultural production with practices that proved to be unsustainable, and whose negative effects (depletion of soil organic carbon [SOC] and emissions of greenhouse gases [GHGs], e.g., CO2) have never been quantified. In this work, we estimated the changes in SOC 85 years after the drainage of the palustrine environment, by comparing 1937 SOC measurements with those made in 2022. Comparison of SOC maps from 1937 and 2022 indicates that most of the area suffered a significant SOC loss (∆OC85 years from 0.05 to 18.57 wt%), except for northern areas in which the peat nature of the soil has been preserved. We also measured the 13C/12C on the 2022 soil samples and generated a present‐day map of the SOC isotopic ratios, which could be used in future as a benchmark to evaluate changes in soil carbon stocks and fluxes. Core Ideas: We compared present‐day and 1937 soil organic carbon (SOC) distribution in soils from Ferrara province and estimated the GHG emissions.In 1937 and 2022, the average of SOC was 4.1 and 2.0 wt%, respectively.In 85 years, soil organic matter (SOM) decreased from 127 to 71 Mg C·ha−1, the highest decrease occurred in drained peatlands.Today areas characterized by peaty soils still show the highest carbon contents.13C/12C is a powerful tool to evaluate net and gross soil carbon changes.
- Subjects
FERRARA (Italy); CARBON in soils; GREENHOUSE gases; WETLANDS; PEAT soils; WORLD War II; WOOD products; AGRICULTURAL productivity
- Publication
Journal of Environmental Quality, 2024, Vol 53, Issue 2, p147
- ISSN
0047-2425
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/jeq2.20542