Modeling of the organic carbon contents in soils of Cerrado fragments located in Januária and Bonito de Minas, Minas Gerais State, Brazil

Abstract

The total soil organic carbon (C) is regulated by climatic factors, altitude, texture and soil depth. Due to higher storage in surface, it is common to observe the exponential model to adjust the C content in the soil profile. This study was carried out in order to study the influence of climatic factors, altitude and soil depth on the vertical distribution (0-100 cm) of C in five Cerrado fragments located in the municipalities of Januária and Bonito de Minas, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Soil samples were collected in the following layers: 0-10, 10-20, 20-40, 40-60 and 60-100 cm. The maximum and minimum levels of C varied depending on the sampling site, fragment and soil layer sampled. Larger variations in the levels of C were noted for the 0-10 cm layer, whose C content did not correlate with root and litter biomasses, and with other soil C conditioning factors tested. Specific logarithmic equations are provided for each of the five fragments in order to estimate the C contents (in the 0-100 cm soil layers) as a function of the average temperature, precipitation, altitude and soil layer sampled.