In April 2016 Manchester eScholar was replaced by the University of Manchester’s new Research Information Management System, Pure. In the autumn the University’s research outputs will be available to search and browse via a new Research Portal. Until then the University’s full publication record can be accessed via a temporary portal and the old eScholar content is available to search and browse via this archive.

Related resources

Full-text held externally

University researcher(s)

    Estimating the oxidative ratio of UK peats and agricultural soils

    Clay, Gareth D; Worrall, Fred

    Soil Use and Management. 2015;31(1):77-88.

    Access to files

      Abstract

      Organic matter in the terrestrial biosphere has a fundamental role in moderating the exchange of CO2 between the atmosphere and the biosphere. One important property of organic matter is its oxidative ratio (OR); that is, the ratio of moles O2 released per mole CO2 sequestered through photosynthesis, that is, the lower the OR, less O2 is released per mole of CO2 fixed. In global assessments of CO2 partitioning, the failure to account for changes in OR could lead to an underestimate of terrestrial carbon sequestration. It is known that OR can vary between environments and management, but what other factors could be playing a role in controlling OR? This study measured the OR of a range of peat (Histosols) and mineral soils (Inceptisols) under similar management from across the United Kingdom to investigate how OR varies within and between material types. The study shows that OR values varied significantly between material types (median peat OR = 1.10, median vegetation OR = 1.03 and median mineral soil OR = 1.14), and they also varied between study sites. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in OR with peat depth. Given the results from this study, we can suggest that future sampling strategies should include sampling of the major carbon pools (i.e. vegetation, litter and soil) and that, as a first approximation, OR can be examined on the basis of these carbon pools alone. The values measured in the study give a new residence time-weighted global OR estimate for the terrestrial biosphere (inline image) of 1.056 ± 0.02.

      Bibliographic metadata

      Type of resource:
      Content type:
      Publication status:
      Published
      Publication type:
      Publication form:
      Published date:
      Language:
      eng
      Journal title:
      Abbreviated journal title:
      ISSN:
      Volume:
      31
      Issue:
      1
      Start page:
      77
      End page:
      88
      Total:
      11
      Pagination:
      77-88
      Digital Object Identifier:
      10.1111/sum.12155
      Attached files Open Access licence:
      Publishers licence
      Attached files embargo period:
      12 months
      Attached files release date:
      12th March, 2016
      Access state:
      Active

      Institutional metadata

      University researcher(s):

      Record metadata

      Manchester eScholar ID:
      uk-ac-man-scw:260795
      Created by:
      Clay, Gareth
      Created:
      12th March, 2015, 13:32:37
      Last modified by:
      Clay, Gareth
      Last modified:
      18th November, 2015, 08:08:26

      Can we help?

      The library chat service will be available from 11am-3pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). You can also email your enquiry to us.