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Carbon-13 and Nitrogen-15 Natural Abundance in Crop Residues and Soil Organic Matter

Department of Soil Science, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7N 0W0

*Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Spatial variability in the ¹³C and ¹⁵N natural abundance of plant residues (¹³C_residue and ¹⁵N_residue) and soil (¹³C_soil and ¹⁵N_soil) at the landscape scale remains largely unexplored. This 2-yr study assessed landscape-scale patterns and investigated topographic and soil factors that control spatial variability. Low values of ¹³C_residue were associated primarily with the lower level and footslope elements, with significantly (P 0.001) higher (less negative) values in the upper level and shoulder elements. Strong similarities in the spatial patterns observed for ¹³C_residue and ¹³C_soil indicate that the ¹³C content of soil organic matter is largely dependent on ¹³C_residue. Although the ¹³C of the crop residues exhibited marked year-to-year variability, which reflected genetic differences and variations in growing season precipitation and perhaps N-fertilization regime, landscape-scale patterns for ¹³C_residue were similar in both years. These data support the hypothesis that ¹³C_residue varies in response to environmental conditions and also suggest that topographic or hydrologic controls are at work. The presence of a landscape-scale pattern in ¹³C_residue and ¹³C_soil may be expected to have a confounding effect on studies that employ the ¹³C natural abundance method to detect changes in plant species composition or to estimate the rate of soil organic matter turnover. Spatial patterns for ¹⁵N_residue and ¹⁵N_soil indicated that ¹⁵N was distributed in an essentially random pattern.

Contribution no. R731 of the Saskatchewan Institute of Pedology.

Received for publication April 29, 1993.

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