Assessment of the soil organic carbon stock in Spain

p.- 4 Tabls.- 6 Figs.

Soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) assessments at a national level are essential in the climate change mitigation role. Our study provides the first assessment of the SOC stored in entire Spanish surface soils obtained from one sampling protocol within a regular sampling framework in a short edaphic time. In this study, we analysed topsoil samples (0–30 cm) from 4401 locations. SOC, soil bulk density and stoniness were measured to estimate SOCS. The results showed that half the Spanish areas obtained a SOC value below 1%. There is inherently wide spatial variability in SOC contents in Spain with low SOC concentration levels located in southern areas. The lowest SOC levels were associated with agricultural soils. However, no statistically significant differences were found between forestlands and grasslands. The mean SOCS in the Spanish topsoil layer was 56.57 Mg C ha− 1 and the total stored in topsoil was 2.8 Pg C. We were surprised to find that our estimates were 40% lower than those known to date for Spain. The results herein highlight the potential land use change for SOC sequestration in Spanish soils. Certain changes in agricultural practises (conservation tillage) or converting some unproductive croplands into grasslands or forestlands can increase carbon sequestration in soils.

We gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment and Agricultural through several projects (CC01-0013, CC05-004, AEG05-029, CC00-0026) for some years. We also wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for Project CGL2013-43675-P.

Peer reviewed