Evaluation of Topsoil Carbon Content and Quality in a Peatland and Reforested Soil after 50 Years of Soil Restoration in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (Spain)
The increase in atmospheric CO2 levels and the advance of desertification due to soil degradation across our planet is becoming one of humanity’s most serious concerns. The restoration and development of soil management techniques are becoming widespread tools to protect soils. The Sierra de Guadarr...
| Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Versión aceptada para publicación |
| Publication Date: | 2023 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repository: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/386596 |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/386596 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Soil organic matter Carbon sequestration Humic acid Fulvic acid Climatic change Greenhouse gases Humic substances |
| Summary: | The increase in atmospheric CO2 levels and the advance of desertification due to soil degradation across our planet is becoming one of humanity’s most serious concerns. The restoration and development of soil management techniques are becoming widespread tools to protect soils. The Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (Spain) is an area that has suffered historically severe deforestation, but it was reforested in an extensive program 50 years ago. In this study, an evaluation Citation: Jiménez-González, M.A.; Boubehziz, S.; Álvarez, A.M.; Carral, P.; Marqués-Pérez, M.J.; Abd-Elmabod, S.K.; Almendros, G. Evaluation of Topsoil Carbon Content and Quality in a Peatland and Reforested Soil after 50 Years of Soil Restoration in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (Spain). Sustainability 2023, 15, 16312. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152316312 Academic Editors: Marc A. Rosen and Teodor Rusu Received: 27 September 2023 Revised: 15 November 2023 Accepted: 23 November 2023 Published: 25 November 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). of the soils in the restored area was carried out. For this purpose, the chemical composition of the different soil organic matter fractions was characterized using infrared and UV-vis spectroscopies. The results showed a large increase in carbon stocks in the topsoil (0–10 cm) (about 30 Mgha 1 more than the area not reforested) after reforestation 50 years ago. There was also an increased level of transformation of organic carbon into resilient humic structures, which are resistant to degradation. Reforestation activities within the National Park have greatly increased the humification rates of organic matter, resulting in the accumulation of high-quality organic carbon. |
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