Soil Erosion Impact on Soil Organic

Carbon Spatial Variability on Steep

Tropical Slopes

Rafita Nurmalasari
Soil Oraganic C plays an important role in natural
ecosystems.
Organic C forms a major part of soil organic
matter, which contains a large number of
important plant growth nutrients, enable the soil
to retain water, protects the soil structure againts
compaction and erosion, and provides energy for
bacteria and the macrofauna, and this
determines soil productivity and biodiversity.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
• Description of the study Hillslope
The studied hillslope is in Laos, 230,566 km2 country
in Southeast Asia. Laos is mostly mountainous (with
an avarage slope gradient of 26.8%) and forested.
Abaout 30% of the total surface area is under
traditional shifting cultivation, where patchest of
forest are cleared and the ground residues are then
burned to enable cultivation for a short period before
the land is allowed to revert to forest regrowth.
• Soil sampling and analysis
From the total of 581 georeferenced soil pits,
2324 samples were taken at depths of 0 to 0.05,
0.05 to 0.15, 0.15 to 0.25, and 0.25 to 0.35 m.
The sampling strategy was driven by the specific
objective of this study and considering available
sample.
• Interpolation of soil organic carbon data
The observation of SOC content and stocks at
546 randomly chosen data points for map
generation were afterward interpolated
throughout the hillslope by using ordinary
kriging, a type of kryging that was previously
shown to perform better for soil parameters
than other available methods.
• Environmental characterization at the
sampling data points
Topographic data of the hillslope were obtained
from a digital elevation model with a 5 m mesh
and a precission in height of -+ 0.5 m that was
generated from height measurements by a laser
theodolite.
• Evaluation of the relationship between soil
organic carbon and selected environmental
factors.
Statistic include minimum, maximum, median,
average. SD, CV, skewness, and kurtosis. A
skewness value different from 0 reveals an
asymetrical distribution, whereas a kurtosis value
different from 0 reveals either a more flat or
more peaked distribution than the normal one.
 RESULT
• Soil distribution across the study hillslope
and soil characteristics at the reference soil
profiles
Dystrochrepts that were localized in the
bottomland, from the stream bank to the
footslope, were developed with in alluvial or
colluvial materials.
• Spatial distribution of soil organic carbon
The SOC content of the 0.05 m layer exhibited a
CV of 26%. Values varied from 8 to a maximum
of 49 g C kg-1 with median of 23 g C kg-1
• Relathionship between spatial distribution of
soil organic carbon stocks and enviromental
factors
The three first axes of the PCA generated from
the enviromental explained 89% of the entire
data variability.
 CONLUSIONS
This study quantified the spatial variations of
SOC content and stocks and their control factors
in a tropical hilsslope of northern Laos.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS