Estimating carbon inputs to soil in forage-based crop rotations and modeling the effects on soil carbon dynamics in a Swedish long-term field experiment

Bolinder, M. A., Katerer, T., Andren, O. and Parent, L. E. 2012. Estimating carbon inputs to soil in forage-based crop rotations and modeling the effects on soil carbon dynamics in a Swedish long-term field experiment. Can. J. Soil Sci. 92: 821-833. There is a need to improve the understanding of soil organic C (SOC) dynamics for forage-based rotations. A key requisite is accurate estimates of the below-ground (BG) C inputs to soil. We used the Introductory Carbon Balance Model (ICBM) to investigate the effects of C input assumptions on C balances with data from a 52-yr field experiment in northern Sweden. The main objective was to validate an approach for estimating annual crop residue C inputs to soil using the data from a continuous forage-based rotation (A). A rotation with only annual crops and more frequent tillage events (D) was used to obtain a rough estimate of the effect of tillage on SOC dynamics. The methodology used to estimate annual crop residue C inputs to soil gave a good fit to data from four out of the six large plots for rotation A. The approximate effects of more frequent tillage in rotation D increased SOC decomposition rate by about 20%. These results allow us to have more confidence in predicting SOC balances for forage-based crop rotations. Root biomass measurements used for calculating BG C inputs were also reviewed, and we show that they have not changed significantly during the past 150 yr.