Combining Old and New Stable Isotope Techniques to Evaluate the Impact of Conservation Tillage on Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Stability

Soil organic matter (SOM) is a major carbon pool. It is a crucial factor for soil quality including several soil physical properties and a major nutrient source for crops. It also plays a significant role in the global carbon cycle. Soils can act as a carbon sink or source depending on land use and agricultural management practices. Some practices such as conservation tillage or no-tillage could increase SOM stocks, particularly in the topsoil, but in the long term it remains to be seen if and how this SOM is stabilized (De Clercq et al., 2015; Govaerts et al., 2009). In order to evaluate the sustainability and efficiency of soil carbon sequestration measures and the impact of different management and environmental factors, information on SOM stability and mean residence time (MRT) is required. However, this information on SOM stability and MRT is expensive to determine via radiocarbon dating, precluding a wide spread use of stability measurements in soil science. But alternative methods based on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes, can provide this information at a fraction of the cost