Modelling soil carbon stocks following reduced tillage intensity: a framework to estimate decomposition rate constant modifiers for RothC-26.3, demonstrated in north west Europe

Matthew W.  Jordon; Pete Smith

doi:10.1016/j.still.2022.105428

Modelling soil carbon stocks following reduced tillage intensity: a framework to estimate decomposition rate constant modifiers for RothC-26.3, demonstrated in north west Europe

Matthew W. Jordon^* (Corresponding Author), Pete Smith

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

University of Oxford

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Simulating cropland soil carbon changes following a reduction in tillage intensity is necessary to determine the utility of this management practice in climate change mitigation. In instances where reduced or no tillage increases soil carbon stocks, this is typically due to reduced decomposition rates of crop residues. Although some soil carbon models contain a priori decomposition rate modifiers to account for tillage regime, these are typically not calibrated to specific climatic regions, and none are currently available for the Rothamsted Carbon Model (RothC). Here, we present a modelling framework to estimate a tillage rate modifier (TRM) for the decomposition rate constants in RothC-26.3 which determine decay between soil carbon pools. We demonstrate this for north-west
Europe, using published data assembled through a recent systematic review with
propagation of error from input parameters throughout the framework. The small magnitude of soil carbon change following a reduction in tillage intensity in this region is eflected in our TRM estimates for no-till of 0.95 (95% Credible Intervals 0.91, 1.00) and reduced tillage of 0.93 (0.90, 0.97), relative to conventional high-intensity tillage with a TRM of 1. These TRMs facilitate realistic simulation of soil carbon dynamics following a reduction of tillage intensity using RothC, and our simple, transparent, and repeatable modelling
framework is suitable for application in other climatic regions using input data generalisable to the context of interest

Original language	English
Article number	105428
Number of pages	5
Journal	Soil & Tillage Research
Volume	222
Early online date	20 May 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2022.105428
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2022

Bibliographical note

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Dr Peter Long for assistance extracting input parameters from spatial data products and Dr Paul Bürkner for advice on Bayesian statistics in the brms package. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments which greatly improved the manuscript.
This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) [grant number BB/M011224/1]. The funder had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Keywords

carbon sequestration
soil organic matter
arable
RothC model
tillage
temperate

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Modelling soil carbon stocks following reduced tillage intensity: a framework to estimate decomposition rate constant modifiers for RothC-26.3, demonstrated in north west Europe",

abstract = "Simulating cropland soil carbon changes following a reduction in tillage intensity is necessary to determine the utility of this management practice in climate change mitigation. In instances where reduced or no tillage increases soil carbon stocks, this is typically due to reduced decomposition rates of crop residues. Although some soil carbon models contain a priori decomposition rate modifiers to account for tillage regime, these are typically not calibrated to specific climatic regions, and none are currently available for the Rothamsted Carbon Model (RothC). Here, we present a modelling framework to estimate a tillage rate modifier (TRM) for the decomposition rate constants in RothC-26.3 which determine decay between soil carbon pools. We demonstrate this for north-westEurope, using published data assembled through a recent systematic review withpropagation of error from input parameters throughout the framework. The small magnitude of soil carbon change following a reduction in tillage intensity in this region is eflected in our TRM estimates for no-till of 0.95 (95% Credible Intervals 0.91, 1.00) and reduced tillage of 0.93 (0.90, 0.97), relative to conventional high-intensity tillage with a TRM of 1. These TRMs facilitate realistic simulation of soil carbon dynamics following a reduction of tillage intensity using RothC, and our simple, transparent, and repeatable modellingframework is suitable for application in other climatic regions using input data generalisable to the context of interest",

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note = "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank Dr Peter Long for assistance extracting input parameters from spatial data products and Dr Paul B{\"u}rkner for advice on Bayesian statistics in the brms package. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments which greatly improved the manuscript. This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) [grant number BB/M011224/1]. The funder had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.",

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AU - Jordon, Matthew W.

AU - Smith, Pete

N1 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank Dr Peter Long for assistance extracting input parameters from spatial data products and Dr Paul Bürkner for advice on Bayesian statistics in the brms package. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments which greatly improved the manuscript. This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) [grant number BB/M011224/1]. The funder had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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N2 - Simulating cropland soil carbon changes following a reduction in tillage intensity is necessary to determine the utility of this management practice in climate change mitigation. In instances where reduced or no tillage increases soil carbon stocks, this is typically due to reduced decomposition rates of crop residues. Although some soil carbon models contain a priori decomposition rate modifiers to account for tillage regime, these are typically not calibrated to specific climatic regions, and none are currently available for the Rothamsted Carbon Model (RothC). Here, we present a modelling framework to estimate a tillage rate modifier (TRM) for the decomposition rate constants in RothC-26.3 which determine decay between soil carbon pools. We demonstrate this for north-westEurope, using published data assembled through a recent systematic review withpropagation of error from input parameters throughout the framework. The small magnitude of soil carbon change following a reduction in tillage intensity in this region is eflected in our TRM estimates for no-till of 0.95 (95% Credible Intervals 0.91, 1.00) and reduced tillage of 0.93 (0.90, 0.97), relative to conventional high-intensity tillage with a TRM of 1. These TRMs facilitate realistic simulation of soil carbon dynamics following a reduction of tillage intensity using RothC, and our simple, transparent, and repeatable modellingframework is suitable for application in other climatic regions using input data generalisable to the context of interest

AB - Simulating cropland soil carbon changes following a reduction in tillage intensity is necessary to determine the utility of this management practice in climate change mitigation. In instances where reduced or no tillage increases soil carbon stocks, this is typically due to reduced decomposition rates of crop residues. Although some soil carbon models contain a priori decomposition rate modifiers to account for tillage regime, these are typically not calibrated to specific climatic regions, and none are currently available for the Rothamsted Carbon Model (RothC). Here, we present a modelling framework to estimate a tillage rate modifier (TRM) for the decomposition rate constants in RothC-26.3 which determine decay between soil carbon pools. We demonstrate this for north-westEurope, using published data assembled through a recent systematic review withpropagation of error from input parameters throughout the framework. The small magnitude of soil carbon change following a reduction in tillage intensity in this region is eflected in our TRM estimates for no-till of 0.95 (95% Credible Intervals 0.91, 1.00) and reduced tillage of 0.93 (0.90, 0.97), relative to conventional high-intensity tillage with a TRM of 1. These TRMs facilitate realistic simulation of soil carbon dynamics following a reduction of tillage intensity using RothC, and our simple, transparent, and repeatable modellingframework is suitable for application in other climatic regions using input data generalisable to the context of interest

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KW - soil organic matter

KW - arable

KW - RothC model

KW - tillage

KW - temperate

U2 - 10.1016/j.still.2022.105428

DO - 10.1016/j.still.2022.105428

M3 - Article

SN - 0167-1987

VL - 222

JO - Soil & Tillage Research

JF - Soil & Tillage Research

M1 - 105428

ER -

Modelling soil carbon stocks following reduced tillage intensity: a framework to estimate decomposition rate constant modifiers for RothC-26.3, demonstrated in north west Europe

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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