Soil organic carbon is commonly used as a key indicator of sustainability of farming systems due to effects on nutrient availability, structural stability and its central role in soil biotic processes. Trends in total carbon content (CT) and lability of carbon (CL) in soil have been measured in a long-term nitrogen (N) x phosphorus (P) fertiliser experiment in continuous cereal cropping to assess the effect of increasing crop nutrient supply on soil carbon accretion and partitioning. Increasing N supply in each crop by 80 kg/ha or more was effective in creating significantly different total and labile carbon content