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Radiocarbon and Stable Carbon Isotopes of Labile and Inert Organic Carbon in the Critical Zone Observatory in Illinois, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2018

Hong Wang ,
Andrew J. Stumpf  and
Praveen Kumar
Hong Wang*
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820USA State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xian, Shaanxi 710061 PRC
Andrew J. Stumpf
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820USA
Praveen Kumar
Affiliation:
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: hongwang@illinois.edu.
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Abstract

We applied the high temperature pyrolysis-combustion technique to partition the total soil organic carbon (SOC) into labile and inert carbon pools for accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating and stable carbon isotope (δ13C), SOC, and carbonate carbon (CC) content analyses to examine SOC variability at a Critical Zone Observatory site in Illinois, USA. The AMS 14C dates of labile and inert carbon in the top 1.55 m overlap except in the Bt horizon. Below 1.55 m the labile carbon is younger by 8000–14,800 years. The SOC content decreases from 3.61% to 0.12% and CC content increases from 0% to 19.16% at this depth. Results indicate that SOC production exceeds its loss in the weathering zone causing a continuous turnover of both SOC pools. A small amount of modern SOC infiltrates into deeper sediment below 1.55 m, making the labile carbon pool much younger. Their difference of AMS 14C contents, ΔF14C, reveals 3−5% more modern carbon in the labile SOC pools except in the Bt horizon, further quantifying that <3−5% modern carbon with potential pollutants is translocated into the unweathered sediments. The δ13C reveals the sources for SOC cycling dynamics in both carbon pools at this site.

Keywords

carbon cycling in Critical Zoneenvironmentisotopesradiocarbon AMS dating
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , June 2018 , pp. 989 - 999
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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