Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T02:44:41.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Comparison of Fractionation Methods for Soil Organic Matter 14C Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Susan E. Trumbore  and
Shuhui Zheng
Susan E. Trumbore
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3100 USA
Shuhui Zheng
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3100 USA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

14C measurements provide a useful test for determining the degree to which chemical and physical fractionation of soil organic matter (SOM) are successful in separating labile and refractory organic matter components. Results from AMS measurements of fractionated SOM made as part of several projects are summarized here, together with suggestions for standardization of fractionation procedures. Although no single fractionation method will unequivocally separate SOM into components cycling on annual, decadal and millennial time scales, a combination of physical (density separation or sieving) and chemical separation methods (combined acid and base hydrolysis) provides useful constraints for models of soil carbon dynamics in several soil types.

Type
14C and Soil Dynamics: Special Section
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , 1996 , pp. 219 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Anderson, D. W. and Paul, E. A. 1984 Organomineral complexes and their study by radiocarbon dating. Soil Science Society of America Journal 48: 298–301.Google Scholar
Balesdent, J. 1987 The turnover of soil organic fractions estimated by radiocarbon dating. The Science of the Total Environment 62: 405–408.Google Scholar
Barrett, L. R. and Schaetzl, R. J. 1992 An examination of podzolization near Lake Michigan using chronofunctions. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 72: 527–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, D. L. and Corcoran, B. J. 1959 Sealed-tube combustions for the determination of carbon-13 and total carbon. Analytical Chemistry 31: 1635–1637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cambardella, C. A. and Elliott, E. T. 1993 Carbon and nitrogen distribution in aggregates from cultivated and native grassland soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 57: 1071–1076.Google Scholar
Cambardella, C. A. and Elliott, E. T. 1994 Carbon and nitrogen dynamics of SOM fractions from cultivated grassland soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 58: 123–130.Google Scholar
Campbell, C. A., Paul, E. A., Rennie, D. A. and McCallum, K. J. 1967 Applicability of the carbon-dating method of analysis to soil humus studies. Soil Science 104: 217–224.Google Scholar
Davidson, E. A. and Ackerman, I. L. 1993 Changes in soil carbon inventory following cultivation of previously untilled soil. Biogeochemistry 20: 161–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donahue, D. J., Linick, T. W. and Jull, A. J. T. 1990 Isotope-ratio and background corrections for accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon measurements. Radiocarbon 32(2): 135–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ertel, J. M. and Hedges, J. I. 1984 Source of sedimentary humic substances: Vascular plant debris. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 49: 2097–2107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folk, R. L. 1961 Petrology of Sedimentary Rocks. Austin, Texas, Hemphill's: 142 p.Google Scholar
Gillespie, R., Hammond, A. P., Goh, K. M., Tonkin, P. J., Lowe, D. C, Sparks, R. J and Wallace, G. 1992a AMS dating of a late Quaternary tephra at Graham Terrace, New Zealand. Radiocarbon 34(1): 21–27.Google Scholar
Gillespie, R., Prosser, I. P., Dlugokenky, E., Sparks, R. J., Wallace, G. and Chappell, J. M. A. 1992b AMS dating of alluvial sediments on the southern tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. Radiocarbon 34(1): 29–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goh, K. M., Stout, J. D. and O'Brien, B. J. 1984 The significance of fractionation dating in dating the age and turnover of SOM. New Zealand Journal of Soil Science 35: 69–72.Google Scholar
Goh, K. M., Stout, J. D. and Rafter, T. A. 1977 Radiocarbon enrichment of soil organic matter fractions in New Zealand soils. Soil Science 123: 385–391.Google Scholar
Goh, K. M., Rafter, T. A., Stout, J. D. and Walker, T. W. 1976 The accumulation of SOM and its carbon isotope content in a chronosequence of soils developed on aeolian sand in New Zealand New Zealand Journal of Soil Science 27: 89–100.Google Scholar
Hammond, A. P., Goh, K. M., Tonkin, P. J. and Manning, M. R. 1991 Chemical pretreatments for improving the radiocarbon dates of peats and organic silts in a gley podzol environment–Grahams Terrace, North Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 34: 191–194.Google Scholar
Harkness, D. D., Harrison, A. F. and Bacon, P. J. 1986 The temporal distribution of “bomb” 14C in a forest soil. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R., eds., Proceedings of the 12th International Radiocarbon Conference. Radiocarbon 28(2A): 328–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, K., Broecker, W. and Bonani, G. 1993 A strategy for estimating the impact of CO2 fertilization on soil carbon storage. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 7: 69–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkinson, D. J., Adams, D. E. and Wild, A. 1991 Model estimates of CO2 emissions from soil in response to global warming. Nature 351: 304–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkinson, D. J. and Raynor, J. H. 1977 The turnover of SOM in some of the Rothamsted classical experiments. Soil Science 123: 298–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martel, Y. A. and Paul, E. A. 1974 The use of radiocarbon dating of organic matter in the study of soil genesis. Soil Science Society of America Proceedings 38:501–506.Google Scholar
Mayer, L. M. 1994 Relationships between mineral surfaces and organic carbon concentrations in soils and sediments. Chemical Geology 114: 347–363.Google Scholar
Oades, J. M. 1993 The role of biology in the formation, stabilization and degradation of soil structure. Geoderma 56: 377–400.Google Scholar
O'Brien, B. J. and Stout, J. D. 1978 Movement and turnover of SOM as indicated by carbon isotopic measurements. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 10: 309–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parton, W. J., Schimel, D. S., Cole, C. V. and Ojima, D. S. 1987 Analysis of factors controlling soil organic matter levels in Great Plains grasslands. Soil Science Society of America Journal 51: 1173–1179.Google Scholar
Paul, E. A., Campbell, C. A., Rennie, D. A. and McCallum, K. J. 1964 Investigations of the dynamics of soil humus utilizing carbon dating techniques. In Transactions of the 8th International Congress of Soil Science. Bucharest, Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania: 201–208.Google Scholar
Potter, C. S., Randerson, J. T., Field, C. B., Matson, P. A., Vitousek, P. M. and Mooney, H. A. 1993 Terrestrial ecosystem production: A process model based on global satellite and surface data. Global Biogeochemichal Cycles 7: 811–842.Google Scholar
Scharpenseel, H. W. and Becker-Heidmann, P. 1992 Twenty-five years of radiocarbon dating soils: Paradigm of erring and learning. In Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 14th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 34(3): 541–549.Google Scholar
Scharpenseel, H. W., Becker-Heidmann, P., Neue, H. U. and Tsutsuki, K. 1989 Bomb-carbon, 14C dating and 13C measurements as tracers of organic matter dynamics as well as of morphogenic and turbation processes. The Science of the Total Environment 81/82: 99–110.Google Scholar
Scharpenseel, H. W., Ronzani, C. and Pietig, F. 1968 Comparative age determinations on different humic-matter fractions. In Proceedings of the Symposium on the Use of Isotopes and Radiation in Soil Organic Matter Studies. IAEA, Vienna: 67–74.Google Scholar
Schimel, D. S., Braswell, B. H., Holland, E. A., McKeown, R., Ojima, D. S., Painter, T. H., Parton, W. A. and Townsend, A. R. 1994 Climatic, edaphic and biotic controls over storage and turnover of carbon in soils. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 8: 279–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sollins, P., Spycher, G. and Topik, C. 1983 Processes of soil organic matter accretion at a mudflow chronosequence, Mt. Shasta, California. Ecology 64: 1273–1282.Google Scholar
Southon, J. R., Vogel, J. S., Trumbore, S. E., Davis, J. C., Roberts, M. L., Caffee, M. W., Finkel, R. C., Proctor, I. D. Heikkinen, D. W., Berno, A. J. and Hornady, R. S. 1992 Progress in AMS measurements at the LLNL spectrometer. In Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 14th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 34(3): 473–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spycher, G., Sollins, P. and Rose, S. 1983 Carbon and nitrogen in the light fraction of a forest soil: Vertical distribution and seasonal patterns. Soil Science 135: 79–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Polach, H. A. 1977 Discussion: Reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3): 355–363.Google Scholar
Townsend, A. R., Vitousek, P. M. and Trumbore, S. E. 1995 Soil organic matter dynamics along gradients of temperature and land-use on the Island of Hawai'i. Ecology 76: 721–733.Google Scholar
Trumbore, S. E., Vogel, J. S. and Southon, J. R. 1989 AMS 14C measurements of fractionated soil organic matter: An approach to deciphering the soil carbon cycle. In Long, A., Kra, R. S. and Srdoč, D., eds., Proceedings of the 13th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 31(3): 644–654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trumbore, S. E. 1993 Comparison of carbon dynamics in two soils using measurements of radiocarbon in pre-and post-bomb soils. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 7: 275–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trumbore, S. E., Bonani, G. and Wölfli, W. 1990 The rates of carbon cycling in several soils from AMS 14C measurements of fractionated soil organic matter. In Bouwman, A. F., ed., Soils and the Greenhouse Effect. Chichester, England, John Wiley & Sons: 405–414.Google Scholar
Trumbore, S. E., Chadwick, O. A. and Amundson, R. 1996 Rapid exchange of soil carbon and atmospheric CO2 driven by temperature change. Science 272:393–396.Google Scholar
Trumbore, S. E., Davidson, E. A., Camargo, P. B., Nepstad, D. C. and Martinelli, L. A. 1995 Belowground cycling of carbon in forests and pastures of Eastern Amazonia. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 9: 515–528.Google Scholar
Trumbore, S. E. and Druffel, E. R. M. 1995 Carbon isotopes for characterizing sources and turnover of nonliving organic matter. In Zepp, R. E. and Sonntag, Ch., eds., The Role of Non-Living Organic Matter in the Global Carbon Cycle. Berlin, John Wiley & Sons: 7–22.Google Scholar
Vitorello, V. A., Cerri, C. C., Andreaux, F., Feller, C. and Victória, R. L. 1989 Organic matter and natural carbon-13 distribution in forested and cultivated oxisols. Soil Science Society of America Journal 53: 773–778.Google Scholar
Vogel, J. S. 1992 A rapid method for preparation of biomedical targets for AMS. In Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 14th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 34(3): 344–350.Google Scholar