Environmental Science & Technology Research Works

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1601

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Author: search.filters.author.Yang, Yun-Ya

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    Assessing Soil Organic Carbon in Soils to Enhance and Track Future Carbon Stocks
    (MDPI, 2020-08-05) Yang, Yun-Ya; Goldsmith, Avi; Herold, Ilana; Lecha, Sebastian; Toor, Gurpal S.
    Soils represent the largest terrestrial sink of carbon (C) on Earth, yet the quantification of the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) is challenging due to the spatial variability inherent in agricultural soils. Our objective was to use a grid sampling approach to assess the magnitude of SOC variability and determine the current SOC stocks in three typical agricultural fields in Maryland, United States. A selected area in each field (4000 m2) was divided into eight grids (20 m × 25 m) for soil sample collection at three fixed depth intervals (0–20 cm, 20–40 cm, and 40–60 cm). Soil pH in all fields was significantly (p < 0.05) greater in the surface soil layer (6.2–6.4) than lower soil layers (4.7–5.9). The mean SOC stocks in the surface layers (0–20 cm: 1.7–2.5 kg/m2) were 47% to 53% of the total SOC stocks at 0–60 cm depth, and were significantly greater than sub-surface layers (20–40 cm: 0.9–1.3 kg/m2; 40–60 cm: 0.8–0.9 kg/m2). Carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio and stable C isotopic composition (δ13C) were used to understand the characteristics of SOC in three fields. The C/N ratio was positively corelated (r > 0.96) with SOC stocks, which were lower in sub-surface than surface layers. Differences in C/N ratios and δ13C signatures were observed among the three fields. The calculated values of SOC stocks at 0–60 cm depth ranged from 37 to 47 Mg/ha and were not significantly different in three fields likely due to the similar parent material, soil types, climate, and a short history of changes in management practices. A small variability (~10% coefficient of variation) in SOC stocks across eight sampling grids in each field suggests that re-sampling these grids in the future can lead to accurately determining and tracking changes in SOC stocks.
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    Hotspots of Legacy Phosphorus in Agricultural Landscapes: Revisiting Water-Extractable Phosphorus Pools in Soils
    (MDPI, 2021-04-07) Roswall, Taylor; Lucas, Emileigh; Yang, Yun-Ya; Burgis, Charles; Scott, Isis S.P.C.; Toor, Gurpal S.
    Controlling phosphorus (P) losses from intensive agricultural areas to water bodies is an ongoing challenge. A critical component of mitigating P losses lies in accurately predicting dissolved P loss from soils, which often includes estimating the amount of soluble P extracted with a laboratory-based extraction, i.e., water-extractable P (WEP). A standard extraction method to determine the WEP pool in soils is critical to accurately quantify and assess the risk of P loss from soils to receiving waters. We hypothesized that narrower soil-to-water ratios (1:10 or 1:20) used in current methods underestimate the pool of WEP in high or legacy P soils due to the equilibrium constraints that limit the further release of P from the solid-to-solution phase. To investigate P release and develop a more exhaustive and robust method for measuring WEP, soils from eight legacy P fields (Mehlich 3–P of 502 to 1127 mg kg−1; total P of 692 to 2235 mg kg−1) were used for WEP extractions by varying soil-to-water ratios from 1:10 to 1:100 (weight:volume) and in eight sequential extractions (equivalent to 1:800 soil-to-water ratio). Extracts were analyzed for total (WEPt) and inorganic (WEPi) pools, and organic (WEPo) pool was calculated. As the ratios widened, mean WEPi increased from 23.7 mg kg−1 (at 1:10) to 58.5 mg kg−1 (at 1:100). Further, WEPi became the dominant form, encompassing 92.9% of WEPt at 1:100 in comparison to 79.0% of WEPt at 1:10. Four of the eight selected soils were extracted using a 1:100 ratio in eight sequential extractions to fully exhaust WEP, which removed a cumulative WEPt of 125 to 549 mg kg−1, equivalent to 276–416% increase from the first 1:100 extraction. Although WEP concentrations significantly declined after the first sequential extraction, WEP was not exhausted during the subsequent extractions, indicating a sizeable pool of soluble P in legacy P soils. We conclude that (i) legacy P soils are long-term sources of soluble P in agricultural landscapes and (ii) the use of a 1:100 soil-to-water ratio can improve quantification and risk assessment of WEP loss in legacy P soils.