Dynamics of soil organic carbon pools following conversion of savannah to cocoa agroforestry systems in the Centre region of Cameroon

Afforestation of gramineous-woody savannah with cocoa agroforestry systems (cAFS) is a common farmer practice in Cameroon considered as sustainable. Nevertheless, the effects of afforestation of savannah with cAFS on soil organic carbon (SOC) turnover and content, and the factors controlling SOC accumulation and stabilization are unknown. SOC content at 0-10 cm soil layer, and SOC distribution in soil particle size fractions (0-20 Mu m fraction considered as mineral-associated organic carbon, MAOC; 50-2000 Mu m considered as particulate organic carbon, POC; and 20-50 Mu m), were compared in different systems settled on degraded savannah (orthic ferralsols). These systems included annual cropland (average 5 years old), cocoa monoculture (average 10 years old), and cAFS (from 20 to 60 years old) including different shade tree species such as Albizia adianthifolia, Canarium schweinfurthii, Dacryodes edulis, Milicia excelsa and Ceiba pentandra. Savannah and nearby secondary forest patches were also included in the design as controls. Soil 13C was analysed to investigate the soil carbon turnover after afforestation (C3 plants) of gramineous savannah (C4 plants). SOC significantly increased in the 0-10 cm depth from 10.6 ± 3.1 g C kg-1 in degraded savannah to 17.9 ± 5.6 g C kg-1 in cAFS reaching similar levels as in nearby secondary forests (16.3 ± 5.8 g C kg-1), while annual cropland and cocoa monoculture presented a non-significant decrease in SOC content. These changes were due to rapid loss of SOC derived from savannah plants (C4) - about 76% within the first 15 years after conversion, and higher gain of SOC derived from C3 plants in cAFS than in the other land uses (e.g. from 3.4 ± 1.5 g C kg-1 in savannah to 17.8 ± 5.7 g C kg-1 in cAFS). This SOC enrichment in cAFS was distributed in POC (64%), MAOC (30%) and the intermediate 20-50 Mu m soil fraction (6%). The higher annual litter input accumulated on a longer period in cAFS (20 to 60 years) than in cocoa monoculture (10 years) concomitant with the lower litter recalcitrance of associated trees compared to cocoa could explain the higher enrichment of SOC in all fractions in cAFS. The soil pH and exch. Ca2+ differed under the different shade tree species, and were positively correlated to SOC content. The highest contents of soil exch. Ca2+ induced by Ceiba and Milicia in the top 10 cm soil layer could contribute to increase SOC enrichment under those species through soil aggregation and related C stabilization. We found no strong evidence of the effect of soil texture on additional soil carbon accumulation in cAFS, especially for the more stable C pool (MAOC). Our results evidenced that savannah afforestation with cAFS appears as a valuable option for top soil carbon enrichment and should consider tree species associated to cocoa to enhance soil C sequestration, soil quality and cocoa production sustainability

Quantification of soil organic carbon in particle size fractions using a near-infrared spectral library in West Africa

International audienceParticle size fractionation enables a better understanding of soil organic carbon (C) dynamics since it separates fractions that differ in composition, residence time and function. However, this method is time-consuming and tedious; thus, its use has been greatly limited. Our objective was to evaluate the ability of an existing soil spectral library (SSL) from different regions of West Africa to predict the C amount in the fractions (gC kg-1 soil) of the samples in a new target set from Benin. The SSL included 181 samples from five countries, and the target set included 94 samples (depth ≤ 40 cm), most of which were coarse-textured; near-infrared reflectance (NIR) spectra were collected for 2 mm sieved samples (non-fractionated samples). The predicted variables were the C amounts in the non-fractionated soil and in the 50 μm fractions (F50, respectively). Different methods were tested to optimize the predictions: (i) SSL enrichment with 10 or 15 samples selected from the target set (spiking) and replicated six times (i.e. extra-weighted); (ii) locally weighted (local) partial least squares regression (PLSR), which is calibration by the spectral neighbours with the highest weights attributed to closest neighbours, and was compared to “global” (i.e., common) PLSR, where all calibration samples equally contribute; and (iii) spectrum pretreatments (e.g., smoothing, centring, derivatization). In addition, the intermediate precision of the conventional data (standard error of laboratory; SELint) was estimated through triplicate fractionation of three samples carried out by three operators (one per replicate). When the SSL alone was used for calibration, the predictions were inaccurate for the C amounts in the nonfractionated soil and in F50, with minimal benefit from the local PLSR over the global PLSR in general. For the non-fractionated soil, F50, the ratios of performance to the interquartile range in the validation set, RPIQVAL, were 1.6–1.8, 1.6–1.7, 1.9 and 1.9–2.1, respectively. Calibration with SSL spiked (i.e., completed with spiking samples) yielded an increase in RPIQVAL from 33 to 56% for the C amount in the non-fractionated soil and F50 (RPIQVAL reached 2.4–2.5, 2.2–2.3, 1.9–2.0 and 2.1–2.3, respectively), and the benefit of local PLSR was still limited. The SELint was based on a few samples and thus only provided a rough estimation; this estimate represented at least 65% of the prediction error for the C amounts in the fractions. Therefore, the SELint needs to be determined more extensively to both improve the model accuracy and refine the interpretation of the predictions based on NIR spectra. This library should be enriched with samples from other sites to represent other soil types