Determination of organic and inorganic carbon, δ¹³C, and nitrogen in soils containing carbonates after acid fumigation with HCl
2010
Walthert, Lorenz | Graf, Ursula | Kammer, Adrian | Luster, Jörg | Pezzotta, Daniele | Zimmermann, Stephan | Hagedorn, Frank
In carbonate-containing soils a reliable determination of organic C requires a method that effectively separates organic and inorganic C without altering the organic matter. This study was conducted to determine whether HCl vapor completely removes carbonates even in dolomite-rich soils and to what extent a widely used acid-fumigation method has to be modified for humus-rich soils. Furthermore, it was tested whether HCl fumigation alters organic-C content. Since C and N parameters are often analyzed simultaneously we also tested the influence of acid-vapor treatment on N content and on δ¹³C of soil organic matter. We applied fumigation with 37% HCl for 8 and 32 h using 9 carbonate-containing soil samples. Inorganic C ranged from 7 to 124 and organic C from 9 to 267 g kg⁻¹. The maximum contents of dolomite and calcite were 940 and 640 g kg⁻¹, respectively. A time of 8 h was enough to completely remove all carbonates. Neither the content nor the δ¹³C of organic C were significantly affected by fumigation. In contrast, N contents were altered by acid treatment. Based on these results and on our experience in analyzing more than 1000 soil samples, a recommended procedure for acid fumigation of carbonate-containing soils with a wide range of organic- and inorganic-C contents was derived. Samples pretreated in this way can be analyzed reliably for their organic-C content and δ¹³C. Furthermore, N and inorganic-C contents can be determined with a quality sufficient for many purposes.
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