Soil Science Society of America Journal · 1995 · 215 citations · 0 references
AgricultureEarth SciencesSoil SciencesSoil BiogeochemistrySoil ScienceSoil SurveySoil - Vegetation InteractionsSoil Resource AssessmentSoil Resource InventoryAboveground Carbon StocksBelowground Carbon StocksSoil Bulk DensitySoil Carbon Stock EstimationSoil Carbon Stocks
Abstract We determined stocks of C and N for soils under undisturbed vegetation across the Brazilian Amazon Basin based on 1162 soil profiles of the RADAMBRASIL survey and a digitized Brazilian soil survey map. Mean basin soil C density was 10.3 kg C m −2 . Forty‐seven petagrams C and 4.4 Pg N were contained in the top 1 m of soil. Forty‐five percent of total basin soil C (21 Pg C) and 41% of total soil N (1.8 Pg N) were contained in the top 20 cm across a ≈ 5 000 000‐km 2 area. Mean C/N ratio for the basin to a depth of 1 m was 10.7. Because these data represent sites with forest vegetation in the absence of significant disturbances, they represent a valuable baseline for evaluating the effects of land‐use changes on soil C stocks in the Amazon Basin.