Preparing a soil carbon inventory of Saxony‐Anhalt, Central Germany using GIS and the state soil data base SABO_P

Abstract

Abstract To obtain information on regional soil carbon (C) stocks, we prepared a soil C inventory for the central German State Saxony‐Anhalt. We used the State Soil Database SABO_P ( S achsen‐ A nhalt Bo den_ P rofildatenbank), which contains data from 3,600 soil profiles with 16,300 individual soil horizons and combined it with a geographic information system (GIS ArcView). Soil C stocks down to a depth of 100 cm were compiled for the three major soil regions of Saxony‐Anhalt (soil region 2: river valleys and floodplains; soil region 4: pre‐Weichselian moraines, and soil region 6: loess‐covered areas), which represent 83 % of the total state territory. The three major soil regions in Saxony‐Anhalt comprise on average 12.7 (soil region 2), 8.9 (soil region 4), and 12.8 kg C m –2 (soil region 6). Total C content of the area investigated was 191 tg. The typical soils of the region, Haplic Chernozems, contain on average 13.9 kg C m –2 . With few exceptions, soil C did not vary significantly within identical taxonomic groups among different soil subregions. However, Chernozems of soil subregion 3 (Wanzlebener Löß‐Plateau; 19.8 kg C m –2 ) contain significantly more C than the Chernozems of soil subregions 9 (Pollebener, Gerbstedter and Lettewitzer Löß‐Plateau; 12.1 kg C m –2 ) and 15 (Barnstädter Löß‐Plateau 12.2 kg C m –2 ). The spatial distribution of C stocks in Saxony‐Anhalt was represented in a map which suggests the existence of a strong link between the geomorphologic position of a given soil and its capacity to store organic C. Within the same taxonomic unit, finer textured soils stored more carbon than coarse‐textured ones.