IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i15p8240-d600146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Peatland Siltation on Total and Labile C, N, P and K

Author

Listed:
  • Slawomir Smolczynski

    (Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-245 Olsztyn, Poland)

  • Barbara Kalisz

    (Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-245 Olsztyn, Poland)

  • Pawel Urbanowicz

    (Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-245 Olsztyn, Poland)

  • Miroslaw Orzechowski

    (Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-245 Olsztyn, Poland)

Abstract

Large areas of peatlands, in addition to the effect of drainage, were subjected to erosional process and were silted. The objective of the study was to verify whether siltation of peatlands hampers mineralization of remaining peat and alters labile C, N, P and K. Total C and N were measured on a CN analyzer, and total P and K on an ICP spectrometer after microwave digestion. The labile fractions of C, N, P and K were extracted with hot water and measured on the CN analyzer and ICP spectrometer. We noted that labile C, N, P and K concentrations in silted topsoil were lower than the values reported in unsilted topsoil. Higher concentration of labile compounds in peats is a signal of higher biological activity and mineralization of organic matter. A TOC/TP < 300 and TOC/TN of approximately 8 in topsoil suggested diminished mineralization and supported our hypothesis that siltation hampered mineralization of organic matter. The TOC/TK ratio proved to be a fine indicator of the state of organic soils siltation, which enabled the separation of unsilted peats from silted topsoil (on the base of value of 177). It can be assumed that the mineralization of peat layers is hampered by the above lying silted topsoil, which is less biologically active, having less oxygen, and therefore conserving underlying peats against oxidation.

Suggested Citation

  • Slawomir Smolczynski & Barbara Kalisz & Pawel Urbanowicz & Miroslaw Orzechowski, 2021. "Effect of Peatland Siltation on Total and Labile C, N, P and K," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-11, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:15:p:8240-:d:600146
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8240/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8240/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrzej Łachacz & Barbara Kalisz & Paweł Sowiński & Bożena Smreczak & Jacek Niedźwiecki, 2023. "Transformation of Organic Soils Due to Artificial Drainage and Agricultural Use in Poland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Ryszard Oleszczuk & Andrzej Łachacz & Barbara Kalisz, 2022. "Measurements versus Estimates of Soil Subsidence and Mineralization Rates at Peatland over 50 Years (1966–2016)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-19, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:15:p:8240-:d:600146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.