Land Use Alters the Plant-Derived Carbon and Nitrogen Pools in Terraced Rice Paddies in a Mountain Village

Seiji Shimoda and Tomoyo F. Koyanagi
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Seiji Shimoda: Memuro Research Station, Hokkaido Agricultural Research Center, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO/HARC/M), Shinsei, Memuro, Kasai, Hokkaido 082-0081, Japan
Tomoyo F. Koyanagi: Field Studies Institute for Environmental Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, 4-1-1 Nukuikitamachi, Koganeishi, Tokyo 184-0015, Japan

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-10

Abstract: In Japan, terraced paddies in mountain villages are symbolic of the traditional landscape, but they are gradually being abandoned. To compare plant-derived C and N among land uses, we compared adjacent forest floor (FF), agricultural paddy (AP), and post-agricultural paddy (PP) sites. Long-term litter accumulation could explain the significantly higher litter C and belowground biomass C in FF than in AP and PP. The low-density-fraction (LF) soil C was significantly higher in FF than in PP and better reflected land use than the whole-soil C. The AP soil held more N than FF and PP at 20–30 cm, associated with higher LF soil N. Periodic tillage in AP maintains the LF soil N, but N supplied to the surface soil reduced with depth following abandonment. Differences in recycling of organic matter and nutrients among land uses are crucial to plant-derived C and N contents of soil.

Keywords: land use; paddy; soil carbon; agricultural abandonment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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