The influence of different management treatments and soil types on biomass and soil organic carbon

To investigate the possibilities under article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol and to determine possible significant increases in soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration, a field experiment was set up on three soil types in Flanders (Belgium). As expected, higher mean SOC contents were found when establishing grassland was compared to original SOC concentrations under previous cropland management. Under agricultural grassland management, SOC concentration increased with on average 14% on the sandy loam soil, 2% on the sand soil and 35% on the clay soil. Under verges, the increases were larger but a significant increase was only found for the sandy loam soil. However, because changes in SOC occur very slowly it is too early to find significant differences in SOC concentrations between and within the various treatments. The removal (or not) of the hay influenced the aboveground dry matter production more than the level of fertilizer used.