Impact of agriculture on soil organic matter quantity and quality in Retisols – a case study from the Carpathian Foothills in Poland

ABSTRACT

Changes in land use are very important factors affecting soil quality and especially the concentration and stock of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN). Very little is known about changes in spectroscopic properties of SOM after conversion of forestland to cropland. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to determine impact of agriculture on the concentration and stock of SOC and TN as well as spectroscopic properties of SOM in the topsoil horizons of Retisols in the Carpathian Foothills in southern Poland. Topsoil Ap horizons of arable soils are characterized by a significantly lower concentration of SOC and TN in comparison with topsoil Oi and Ah horizons of forestland soils. Topsoil Ap horizons feature higher SOC and TN stocks than topsoil Oi and Ah horizons. Significantly higher concentrations of SOC and TN in Oi horizons in comparison with Ah and Ap horizons are responsible for significantly higher mean absorbance values of all FTIR-ATR absorption bands originating from SOM in Oi horizons versus Ah and Ap horizons. Significantly higher concentrations of SOC and TN in Ah horizons of forestland soils versus those in Ap horizons of arable soils do not significantly affect mean absorbance values of FTIR-ATR bands.

KEYWORDS:

• Land-use change
• soil organic carbon
• total nitrogen
• loess
• FTIR-ATR spectroscopy

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. We wish to thank Adam Kiszka from the Łazy Village Agricultural Experimental Station at Jagiellonian University in Kraków for supplying detailed information about land tillage, fertilization, and resulting crops for the plot used in the study. Language editing was done by Grzegorz Zębik.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.