Comparing Soil Organic Matter Pools in Contrasting Watershed Land Use.

Soil is one of the primary carbon pools in the terrestrial ecosystem.  Land use in watershed ecosystems can greatly affect soil organic matter pools.  Soil organic matter helps to strengthen soil aggregates and in turn helps to reduce erosion and protect the environment.  The objective of this research was to determine particulate organic carbon, total organic carbon and their ratios in the riparian soils of the two Kentucky Lake watersheds.  Study sites were located in Panther Creek and Ledbetter Creek with similar soil types and weather patterns.  The Ledbetter Creek site was selected due to the high level of heavy modern agriculture (45%), while Panther Creek site has forest covering of 95%.  Soil samples from the depth of 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, 20-30 cm were collected from both sites during August and November 2008.  Soil organic carbon and particulate organic carbon in the riparian surface soil decreased from August to November.  Soil in the Panther Creek provided higher values of total organic carbon of 52 g/kg compared to Ledbetter’s soil (40 g/kg).  In contrast, particulate organic carbon was higher in Ledbetter’s soil (31 g/kg) than in riparian soil of Panther Creek (21 g/kg).  We conclude that watershed land use and sampling time during the year influenced the dynamics of soil organic matter pools.