Abstract:
Soil plays an important role in the
ecosystem with regard to plant growth,
soil biota functioning, reduction of
greenhouse gases, modification of pollutants
and maintenance of soil quality.
The great importance of C stocks emphasizes
the need to understand the role of
soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics and
quantitative changes as affected by natural
conditions and site-specific management.
Soil carbon inventories and turnover rates
are influenced by climate, vegetation, parent
material, topography and time. Studies
attempting to understand the influence
of a specific factor (e.g. temperature or
moisture) on soil properties have found it
useful to identify a group of soils for
which the factor in question varies.
Nevertheless, soils are the largest pool of
terrestrial carbon containing 1550 Pg of
soil organic carbon (SOC)1. This vast
carbon pool is subjected to perturbation
as a result of anthropogenic activities
(land-use change) and natural reasons
(climate change, soil erosion, etc.). The
maintenance and enhancement of this
terrestrial carbon can occur only through
better land-management practices. The
exchange of carbon between the terrestrial
biosphere and the atmosphere is an
important yet poorly constrained portion
of the global carbon cycle2. Though terrestrial
carbon cycling has a strong influence
on atmospheric CO2, quantitative
estimates of production and loss at the
watershed scale are rare. Watershed being
a discernable landscape unit to study
the integrated hydrological and biogeochemical
processes, a study on quantitative
estimation of gain and loss of carbon
assumes importance in current climatic
aberrations and future climate-change
scenarios.
