Research Unit in Materials, Energy and Environment for Sustainability

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Organizational Unit

Publications

Soil Vertical Distribution of Organic Carbon and Sequestration Potential in Ponte de Lima (Alto Minho Region, Northern Portugal)

Publication . Rodrigues, Cristina I. Dias; Brito, Luís Miguel; Nunes, Leonel J.R.

Understanding the vertical distributions of organic carbon (OC) is crucial for predicting and simulating the influences of soil units on the terrestrial carbon cycle. The OC in the fine earth fraction was calculated for the soil units Anthrosols, Cambisols, Fluvisols, Leptosols, and Regosols in the municipality of Ponte de Lima, Portugal, at depths of 0–30 cm, 0–100 cm, 0–200 cm, and 0–2590 cm. In the study area, over 40% of the OC is concentrated in the Regosol unit, followed by the Anthrosols with over 23% OC at all depths, and the Leptosols with over 22% OC at all depths. The soil units Cambisols and Fluvisols have a lower representation in the territory, with values below 1.5% and 6.5% respectively at all depths. The obtained results contribute to assessing the potential of the soil units present in the municipality to sequester CO2, promoting the development of carbon inventories and analyzing the distribution of OC through accurate and reliable estimates of current C reserves as an essential tool for analyzing and modeling the effects of different factors involved in the potential of soil OC sequestration.

2024Journal article

Open access

Dynamics of Soil Carbon Average Content Insights from a Global Approach to Climate Change Mitigation

Publication . Rodrigues, Cristina I. Dias; Brito, Luís; Nunes, Leonel J. R.

This study provides an in-depth examination of the average values of gravi- metric carbon content, measured in grams per kilogram (g/kg), and the organic Carbon (OC) content, quantified in kilograms per square meter (kg/ m2), within various soil classifications and depths. Highlighting the relevance of such research, it delves into the intricacies of soil OC dynamics across diverse depth strata and offers a comparative analysis of different soil types, each with distinct carbon sequestration capacities. Utilizing the latest version of the world soil database, the research integrates three interconnected data sets: soil classification, density, and OC. In total, the study includes 51,507 soil profile layers to calculate the average gravimetric OC content in the fine- earth fraction. In parallel, the average OC content in the fine-earth fraction was determined across 6,197 soil profile layers. This comprehensive data is organized into 34 separate soil units, each dissected across four depth categories: 0–30 cm, 0–100 cm, 0–200 cm and 0–2590 cm. The findings from this analysis reveal a consistent pattern: as depth increases, both the gravimetric content and average OC content tend to decrease. However, it is noteworthy that this trend is not universal. Certain soil units demonstrate an opposing behavior, with an increase in average OC content observed at greater depths, contradicting the prevailing trend. This divergence under- scores the complexity of soil OC dynamics and the inherent variability across different soil units.

2025Journal article

Open access