Soil organic carbon stocks and quality in small-scale tropical, sub-humid and semi-arid watersheds under shrubland and dry deciduous forest in southwestern India

Soil organic carbon stocks and quality in small-scale tropical, sub-humid and semi-arid watersheds under shrubland and dry deciduous forest in southwestern India. Soil organic carbon is regulated by a dynamic interaction between vegetation inputs, organic matter degradation, and stabilization processes in soils, and its redistribution in the landscape. Many processes of the soil carbon cycle are yet to be fully understood in the tropics. In this study carried in both the Mule Hole and the Maddur M-TROPICS critical zone observatories in India, the authors studied soil organic carbon stocks and quality. The study provides new data and insights into the local-scale drivers of soil organic carbon quantity and quality of tropical, sub-humid and semi-arid watersheds under shrubland and dry deciduous forest with varying geology and soil types.

The paper was published in Geoderma.