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Landscape Position And Climatic Gradient Impacts On Carbon Turnover in Dryland Cropping Systems in Colorado
1G. Peterson, 1D. Westfall, 2L. A. Sherrod
1. Colorado State University
2. USDA-ARS

 

Soil organic carbon has decreased in cultivated wheat-fallow systems due to increased carbon oxidation, low carbon input and soil erosion.  Implementation of more intensive cropping with no-till management has reversed the trend in soil carbon loss.  Our objective in this presentation is to review the effects of landscape position on soil carbon status as related to intensification of cropping system.  Our analysis will be based on 12 years of data from a long-term cropping system experiment conducted in eastern CO under dryland conditions.  In summary, decreases in summer fallow frequency resulted in improved carbon budgets. Landscape position impacted soil carbon content as would be expected, in that slope positions that received the most water had the highest soil carbon levels because plant productivity was highest at these positions.  However, cropping system intensification effects were independent of slope position effects in terms of soil carbon budget over the 12-year period that these data encompass.
Keyword: dryland, no-till, soil organic matter
G. Peterson    D. Westfall    L. A. Sherrod    Precision Carbon Management    Oral    2010
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