Soil-Biogeochemical Aspects of Arable Farming in the Russian Federation

Eurasian Soil Science - Soil-biogeochemical aspects of the current state of arable land in the Russian Federation are discussed. Considerable transformation of Russian agriculture has led to...     

Soil CO2 emission,microbial biomass,and microbial respiration of woody and grassy areas in Moscow (Russia)

Journal of Soils and Sediments - Urbanization significantly changes the carbon balance of the terrestrial ecosystem, an important component of which is soil CO2 emission. One of the main sources of...     

Carbon dioxide emissions and net primary production of Russian terrestrial ecosystems

 Determination of the C balance is of considerable importance when forecasting climate and environmental changes. Soil respiration and biological productivity of ecosystems (net primary production; NPP) are the basic components of the terrestrial C cycle. In this study, a previously made assessment of the annual CO₂ flux from Russian soils was improved upon. CO₂ emissions from Russian soils during the growing period were shown to represent, on average, 53–82% of the annual CO₂ flux from Russian soils. The total annual CO₂ flux from Russian soils was estimated at 4.50 Gt C (C source). The NPP of Russian ecosystems was estimated at 4.81 Gt C year^–1 (C sink). Our calculations showed values of CO₂ emissions and the C sink to be very close. This shows that, in general, terrestrial ecosystems are under steady state. Received: 1 December 1997     

Losses of nitrogen,phosphorus and potassium from agricultural watersheds of minor rivers in the Oka Valley

The losses of nitrogen (NH₄, NO₃, N_org), phosphorus (P_ortho, P_poly, P_org) and potassium (K⁺) from watershed areas of minor rivers, draining regions of different agricultural land use in the Oka Valley, U.S.S.R., were investigated. No N, P, and K pollution was shown in these watersheds, even though the rate of losses was found to be highly correlated with the amounts of mineral fertilizers and FYM applied. The losses were also determined by the natural soil fertility, erosion processes and soil texture under the similar level of fertilization.     

Chemical structure of terrestrial humus materials formed from different vegetation characterized by solid-state 13C NMR with CP-MAS techniques

Eleven samples of terrestrial humus from different vegetational backgrounds were examined with solid-state ¹³C NMR using cross-polarization and magic-angle spinning (CP-MAS). In addition, all the samples were run with a dipolar dephasing pulse sequence for non-quarternary carbon suppression (NQS). The humus samples all appeared to contain small amounts of aromatic substances and larger amounts of aliphatic compounds. Most of the samples contained considerable amounts of hydroxyl groups and acetals, which originate mainly from carbohydrates. No correlations were found between vegetational background and chemical structure.     

Study of landscape-agrogeochemical balance of nutrients in agricultural regions: Part III. Nitrogen

On the basis of the analysis of lands cape-agrogeochemical balance of N carried out in watersheds of four small rivers the input values were shown to be considerably higher than output values during the 10-yr period. This was due to an increase in mineral fertilizer application with no commensurate rise in the export of agricultural production from the regions.     

Fungi-to-bacteria ratio in soils of European Russia

The selective inhibition technique by specific antibiotics (streptomycin, cycloheximide) applied to substrate-induced respiration (SIR) measurement was used to test the relative contribution of fungi to bacteria (F/B ratio) to the overall microflora-induced activity in soils of European Russia. Investigated soils covered a wide climatic transect and different ecosystem types including managed vs. natural ecosystems. Before direct comparison among sites, the antibiotic inhibition technique was optimized for soil characteristics. Once the optimal concentration was set, the combined effect of the two antibiotics resulted in average 60% inhibition of SIR. The analyzed sites (in total 47) including various biomes (tundra, middle taiga, southern taiga, subtaiga, dark coniferous forests outside the boreal region, steppe, mountain forests and arable sites), were characterized by a wide range of soil pH_w (3.95–7.95), soil organic carbon (0.69–24.08%), soil microbial biomass carbon (149–5028 µg C g^?1 soil) and soil basal respiration (0.24–8.28 µg CO₂-C g^?1 soil h^?1). In all the analyzed sites, a predominance of fungal over bacteria activity was observed with F/B ratios always higher than one (4.9 on average). Natural sites were characterized by higher F/B ratios (on average 5.6) compared to agricultural ones (on average 3.5).     

Soil Respiration and Biogenic Carbon Dioxide Sink in the Territory of Russia: An Analytical Review

Studies on the assessment of soil respiration and ecosystem CO₂ sink in the territory of Russia are reviewed over the period since the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). The first estimates of total soil respiration in the entire territory of Russia, made in 1995 to 1998, amount to 3.1 and 4.3 Gt C per growing season and per year, respectively. On average, soil CO₂ efflux over the cold season (November–March) accounts for 20–30% of annual efflux. The contribution of heterotrophic respiration (R _H ) to the total soil respiration (R _S ) may reach 30–70%, depending on ecosystem type. Despite differences in methods used to measure R _H , the results obtained by different authors vary within a relatively narrow range, from 2.9 to 3.5 Gt C/year at an uncertainty level of about 20%. The soil cover of Russia (11.7% of the global land area) accounts for 6.3% of global soil CO₂ efflux. The data on ecosystem CO₂ sink are widely scattered among publications. Estimates of carbon balance differ depending on approaches and methods used to determine its individual components and the level of uncertainty in the results. However, most of them confirm the main conclusion: the territory of Russia with its forests is an absolute CO₂ sink with a potential of 200 Mt C/year. This conclusion has been corroborated in the absolute majority of studies performed by Russian and international research teams.     

Effect of temperature and moisture on the mineralization and humification of leaf litter in a model incubation experiment

The mineralization and humification of leaf litter collected in a mixed forest of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve depending on temperature (2, 12, and 22°C) and moisture (15, 30, 70, 100, and 150% of water holding capacity ( WHC)) has been studied in long-term incubation experiments. Mineralization is the most sensitive to temperature changes at the early stage of decomposition; the Q ₁₀ value at the beginning of the experiment (1.5–2.7) is higher than at the later decomposition stages (0.3–1.3). Carbon losses usually exceed nitrogen losses during decomposition. Intensive nitrogen losses are observed only at the high temperature and moisture of litter (22°C and 100% WHC). Humification determined from the accumulation of humic substances in the end of incubation decreases from 34 to 9% with increasing moisture and temperature. The degree of humification C_HA/C_FA is maximum (1.14) at 12°C and 15% WHC; therefore, these temperature and moisture conditions are considered optimal for humification. Humification calculated from the limit value of litter mineralization is almost independent of temperature, but it significantly decreases from 70 to 3% with increasing moisture. A possible reason for the difference between the humification values measured by two methods is the conservation of a significant part of hemicelluloses, cellulose, and lignin during the transformation of litter and the formation of a complex of humic substances with plant residues, where HSs fulfill a protectoral role and decrease the decomposition rate of plant biopolymers.