SOC Turnover and Lime-CO₂Evolution during Liming of an Acid Andisol and Ultisol

Agricultural liming contributes significantly to atmospheric CO2 emission from soils but data on magnitude of lime- contributed CO2 in a wide range of acid soils are still few. Data on lime-contributed CO2 and SOC turnover for global acid soils are needed to estimate the potential contribution of agricultural liming to atmospheric CO2. Using Ca13CO3 (13C 99%) as lime and tracer, here we separated lime-contributed and SOC-originated CO2 evolution in an acidic Kuroboku Andisol from Tanashi, Tokyo Prefecture (35°44′ N, 139°32′ E) and Kunigami Mahji Ultisol of Nakijin, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan (26°38′ N, 127°58′ E). On the average, lime-CO2 was 76.84% (Kuroboku Andisol) and 66.36% (Kunigami Mahji Ultisol) of overall CO2 emission after 36 days. There was increased SOC turnover in all limed soils, confirming priming effect (PE) of liming. The calculated PE of lime (Kuroboku Andisol, 51.97% - 114.95%;Kunigami Mahji Ultisol, 10.13% - 35.61%) was entirely 12C turnover of stable soil organic carbon (SOC) since SMBC, a labile SOC pool, was suppressed by liming in our experiment. Our results confirmed that mineralization of lime-carbonates is the major source of CO2 emission from acid soils during agricultural liming. Liming can influence the size of CO2 evolution from agricultural ecosystems considering global extent of acid soils and current volume of lime utilization. We propose the inclusion of liming in simulating carbon dynamics in agricultural ecosystems.

Surfactant-enhanced flushing enhances colloid transport and alters macroporosity in diesel-contaminated soil

Soil contamination by diesel has been often reported as a result of accidental spillage,leakage and inappropriate use. Surfactant-enhanced soil flushing is a common remediation technique for soils contaminated by hydrophobic organic chemicals. In this study, soil flushing with linear alkylbenzene sulfonates（LAS, an anionic surfactant） was conducted for intact columns（15 cm in diameter and 12 cm in length） of diesel-contaminated farmland purple soil aged for one year in the field. Dynamics of colloid concentration in column outflow during flushing, diesel removal rate and resulting soil macroporosity change by flushing were analyzed. Removal rate of n-alkanes（representing the diesel） varied with the depth of the topsoil in the range of 14%–96% while the n-alkanes present at low concentrations in the subsoil were completely removed by LAS-enhanced flushing. Much higher colloid concentrations and larger colloid sizes were observed during LAS flushing in column outflow compared to water flushing. The X-ray micro-computed tomography analysis of flushed and unflushed soil cores showed that the proportion of fine macropores（30–250 μm in diameter）was reduced significantly by LAS flushing treatment. This phenomenon can be attributed to enhanced clogging of fine macropores by colloids which exhibited higher concentration due to better dispersion by LAS. It can be inferred from this study that the application of LAS-enhanced flushing technique in the purple soil region should be cautious regarding the possibility of rapid colloid-associated contaminant transport via preferential pathways in the subsurface and the clogging of water-conducting soil pores.