Soils with more clay and dense vegetation were rich in soil carbon along Wadi Al-Sharaea, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Autor: Hanan E.M. Osman, Abeer A. Elaidarous, Mohamed H. El-Morsy, Ebrahem M. Eid, Amr E. Keshta
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Heliyon, Vol 9, Iss 1, Pp e12988- (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2405-8440
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e12988
Popis: In arid ecosystems, lack of vegetation and nutrients can negatively impact soil carbon (C) content. In the current study, our goals were to assess soil C stocks to a depth of 50 cm in an arid ecosystem (Wadi Al-Sharaea, Saudi Arabia) and determine their relation to different vegetation cover. To address our research objective, a total of 102 quadrate (randomly selected) were established along the desert wadi. Soil samples were collected to a depth of 50 cm with 5 cm interval, then Soil Bulk Density (SBD, g/cm3), Soil Organic C Content (SOC, g C/kg), and stocks (kg C/m2) were estimated. Both soil mechanical and chemical analyses were conducted for a composite soil sample. Study sites were categorized based on their visual vegetation cover (VC) percentage (%) into three major groups: 1) scarce vegetation cover (VC less than 25%); 2) medium vegetation cover (VC is higher than 25% and less than 75%); and lastly 3) dense vegetation cover (VC is higher than 75%). Soils were characterized by higher sand content (48.2%, both fine and coarse compiled) than silt (36.7 ± 1.64%) or clay (10.1 ± 1.28%). There were significant differences among soil Calcium (Ca) and Potassium (K) content (p
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