Short and Long-Term Effect of Land Use and Management on Soil Organic Carbon Stock in Semi-Desert Areas of North Africa-Tunisia
Fatma Baraket,
Manuel González-Rosado,
Nadhem Brahim,
Núria Roca,
Hadda Ben Mbarek,
Marcin Świtoniak,
Rayda Chaker,
Ángel Sánchez-Bellón,
Hafedh Rigane,
Kamel Gargouri,
Luis Parras-Alcántara
Affiliations
Fatma Baraket
Research Laboratory of Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Development (L18ES32), Earth Sciences Department, Sfax Faculty of Sciences, P.O. Box 1087, Sfax 3000, Tunisia
Manuel González-Rosado
SUMAS Research Group, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Soil Science and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Agrifood Campus of International Excellence—ceiA3, University of Cordoba, 14071 Cordoba, Spain
Nadhem Brahim
Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis 2092, Tunisia
Núria Roca
Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Hadda Ben Mbarek
Research Laboratory of Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Development (L18ES32), Earth Sciences Department, Sfax Faculty of Sciences, P.O. Box 1087, Sfax 3000, Tunisia
Marcin Świtoniak
Department of Soil Science and Landscape Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, 1 Lwowska Str., 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Rayda Chaker
Olive Institute, University of Sfax, P.O. Box 1087, Sfax 3000, Tunisia
Ángel Sánchez-Bellón
Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Campus University of Puerto Real, Cadiz University, 11519 Puerto Real, Spain
Hafedh Rigane
Research Laboratory of Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Development (L18ES32), Earth Sciences Department, Sfax Faculty of Sciences, P.O. Box 1087, Sfax 3000, Tunisia
Kamel Gargouri
Olive Institute, University of Sfax, P.O. Box 1087, Sfax 3000, Tunisia
Luis Parras-Alcántara
SUMAS Research Group, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Soil Science and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Agrifood Campus of International Excellence—ceiA3, University of Cordoba, 14071 Cordoba, Spain
Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays an important role in the global C cycle, as well as in the maintenance and improvement of the soil quality. Over time, special attention has been paid to it in the study of the SOC reserves worldwide; however, reduced attention has been given to assessing the spatial patterns of SOC stock (SOCS) in semi-desert ecosystems. In this line, there are no conclusive studies in drylands of Africa affected by aeolian processes (semi-desert conditions) mainly due to the complexity of sample collection, and this is especially significant in some soil types such as Arenosols (AR) and Calcisols (CL). This study evaluated the spatial variability of SOC and SOCS in AR and CL with woody crops in relation to land use and management (old plantations > 100 years: centenary olive grove; new plantations −1 compared to Newly Cultivated AR (NC-AR) with 25.13 Mg ha−1. However, the SOCS decreased after a long period of cultivation in CL from 43.00 Mg ha−1 (Newly Cultivated CL: NC-CL) to 32.19 Mg ha−1 (Old Cultivated CL: OC-CL). This indicates that in the long term, CL has more capacity to store SOC than AR, and that in the short term, AR is more sensitive to land management than CL.
