KWR publication in the news G.J. Pronk - Carbon Cycling in Periodically Waterlogged Soils

“Under changing, increasingly dynamic climatic conditions, temperate soils are forecast to experience a high degree of variability in moisture conditions due to periods of drought and/or flood. These periodicshifts between well‐drained and waterlogged conditions have the potential to enhance carbon cycling by microbes and influence soil quality and land‐derived greenhouse gas emissions.
In a recently published study in Vadose Zone Journal , a soil column was subjected to controlled periods of waterlogging versus drainage. Dynamic water saturation led to pronounced pulses of carbon dioxide emissions and higher depletion of soil organic carbon at the depth exposed to fluctuating water saturation. The research was carried out in a novel experimental setup, in which the water saturation conditions experienced by the soil column were manipulated while monitoring oxygen content, redox potential, and pore water composition.”

(Citation: KWR publication in the news G.J. Pronk – Carbon Cycling in Periodically Waterlogged Soils – CSA News 65(2020)7, p.22)