Influence of land use on the dynamics of soil organic carbon in northern Kazakhstan

The practice of monoculture land use without regard for local environmental conditions can accelerate organic matter decomposition. In the agriculturally and environmentally important soils of northern Kazakhstan, which primarily support cereal cultivation, economic rewards might encourage such monoculture practices. The purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of land use on the dynamics of soil organic carbon in situ for the three different soil classes, Dark Chestnut (DC), Southern Chernozem (SC) and Ordinary Chernozem (OC), in this region. Fluctuations in CO2 emission from the soils showed a similar pattern to temperature fluctuations. Land use markedly influenced the seasonal variation of CO2 emission, in particular fluctuations in CO2 sensitivity to soil temperature. To estimate daily CO2 emission, a prediction equation of CO2 emission using stepwise multiple regression of the Arrehenius model was derived from environmental soil factors by soil type and land use type. Using soil e...