Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation in Post-Agricultural Soils under the Influence Birch Stands

Tomasz Gawęda, Ewa Błońska and Stanisław Małek
Additional contact information
Tomasz Gawęda: State Forests National Forest Holding, Bielsko Forest District, 43-382 Bielsko–Biała, Poland
Ewa Błońska: Department of Forest Soil Science, Faculty of Forestry, University of Agriculture, 31-425 Krakow, Poland
Stanisław Małek: Department of Forest Ecology and Reclamation, Faculty of Forestry, University of Agriculture, 31-425 Krakow, Poland

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 16, 1-12

Abstract: The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effects birch renewal on the soil organic carbon accumulation and on dehydrogenase activity. We selected 12 research plots with birch stands of different ages (1–4 years, 5–8 years, 9–12 years, and 13–17 years) to determine soil texture, pH, total carbon and nitrogen levels, and base cation content. The total organic carbon stock was calculated for the soil profiles. Additionally, dehydrogenase activity was determined. Naturally regenerated birch stands on post-agricultural land facilitated carbon accumulation. Based on our results, dehydrogenase activity is useful in assessing the condition of post-agricultural soils, and its determination allowed for us to assess the processes occurring in post-agricultural soils that are associated with the formation and carbon distribution.

Keywords: afforestation; birch stands; carbon stock; dehydrogenase activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4300/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4300/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:16:p:4300-:d:256002

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().