Symposium no.

32

Paper no. 1650

Presentation: oral

Hot-water carbon is an integrated indicator

of soil quality
GHANI Anwar, DEXTER Moira and PERROTT Ken W.
AgRsearch, Ruakura Research Centre, Private Bag 3123, Hamilton, New Zealand
Abstract
Soil organic matter is thought to be one of the main indicators of sustainable
agriculture. Depletion of soil organic matter causes loss in water holding capacity, poor
aggregation and acceleration in soil erosion, reduced soil biological activity and poor
retention of nutrients. Changes in land use and agricultural husbandry lead to changes in
soil organic matter or organic C pools. Often these changes in soil organic matter are
gradual and subtle, and difficult to detect in the short to medium-terms. Labile pools of
soil C such as microbial biomass are known to be sensitive indicators of soil ecological
stability, stress and restoration. Hot-water C (HWC) is a subset of the soil organic C
pool which correlates strongly with microbial biomass and is therefore thought to be
labile in nature. We evaluated the usefulness HWC measurement in detecting the
impacts of subtle changes within the pastoral ecosystem and the impacts of long-term
cropping, market gardening, pastoral agriculture and native vegetation. We also
examined the nature of HWC and the effects of long-term storage after air-drying or
freezing.
Sixty soil cores (25 mm diameter and 0-75 mm depth) were collected from each
pastoral monitoring site at three monthly intervals coinciding with seasons. Cores were
bulked up and sieved (4 mm). One third of the sieved samples were air-dried at 22C
and another one-third of the samples were frozen at 4C for further analysis. Fresh
moist samples were used to measure microbial biomass C and N (Wardle and Ghani,
1995; Brooks et al., 1985), and mineralisable N (Keeney and Bremner, 1966), total
carbohydrates (Safarik and Santrukova, 1992) and HWC (Ghani et al., 1999). For
determining the HWC, soil samples were placed in polypropylene tubes and the
appropriate volume of distilled water was added (1:10 soil and water ratio). These tubes
were then placed into a water bath at 80C for 16 hrs. The amounts of C in these
extracts were measured using a Shimadzu TOC analyser. Air-dried and frozen soil
samples were also analysed after 3, 12, 24 month periods. For ecosystem comparison on
HWC and other soil biological properties, samples were also collected from adjacent
native bush, cropping and market gardening sites.
Our results showed that HWC was one of the most sensitive measurements to
grazing intensities and fertilisation regimes of either N or P within the pastoral soils.
High intensity dairy grazing had significant (P<0.001) negative impact on the amounts
of HWC when compared with less intensive sheep/beef grazing. Long-term (over 15
yrs) application of maintenance level of P fertilisers had a positive effect on the HWC
and microbial biomass. Five years of high dose of N (200, 400 kg N ha-1 y-1) had
significant (P<0.001) negative impact on HWC and other microbial measurements.
Comparison of HWC in soils from other ecosystems showed the highest amounts of

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17th WCSS, 14-21 August 2002, Thailand

HWC in native followed by pastoral, cropping and market gardening soils. There was
strong positive correlation between HWC and microbial biomass-C, total carbohydrates
and mineralisable N and microaggregate stability. It is evident from these results that
HWC is an integrated measurement which correlates with key biological and physical
attributes of soils. In comparison to other measurements, HWC determination is
considerably easier, economic and less time consuming. Total analysis of hot-water
extracts showed that it also extracts significant amounts of labile forms of N, S and to
some extent P. Generally, storage of soil samples over 6 months tended to increase the
amounts of HWC. The proportion of increase varied between soils.
Keywords: hot-water C, microbial biomass, mineralisable N, soil microaggregate
Introduction
Soil organic matter or organic carbon is regarded as one of the main indicators of
soil quality responsible for a number of key soil physical, chemical and biological
functions in soil-plant-animal ecosystem (Gregorich et al., 1994). However, the rate of
change in the total organic pool is relatively slow and often difficult to detect. Hot-water
C (HWC) is a subset of soil organic C pool, relatively labile in nature (Sparling et al.,
1998; Ghani et al., 1999), and hence it is likely to reflect changes in soil-plant
management. We investigated the usefulness of this indicator in detecting changes in a
pastoral ecosystem where changes in grazing intensity, N and P fertiliser were made.
The spatial and temporal variability in hot-water C and impacts of short and long-term
storage of samples were also investigated. The effects on HWC of ecosystem changes
(native bush, pastoral agriculture, cropping and market gardening) on the same soil type
were also examined.
Materials and Methods
A total of 118 sites were sampled from four different soil orders namely; allophanic
(66), pumice (14), brown (20) and pallic (28) soils. Samples were collected
predominantly from pasture sites which have been under long-term dairy or sheep/beef
grazing. However, for comparative purposes a number of samples were also collected
from adjacent cropping, market gardening, native bush and forestry sites. Sixty soil
cores (25 mm diameter and 75 mm depth) were collected from a transact of 100 x 6 M2
at each sampling site. Field-moist soil samples were sieved (2 mm) and analysed for
microbial biomass C and N (Vance et al., 1987; Brookes et al., 1982), mineralisable N
(Keeny and Bremner, 1961), total C, N (Ghani et al., 2000), water extractable C, and
HWC (Ghani et al., 1999). HWC was also measured in air-dried and frozen samples.
Soil aggregation characteristics were also measured using a standard wet sieving
technique (Chenny and Swift, 1986). Standard soil fertility measurements were made
using approved methods. To determine the effects of N or P fertilisers on the HWC and
other soil biochemical measurements, soil samples were also analysed from long-term
N or P fertiliser trials located on allophanic soils (Ghani et al., 2002).
Results and Discussion
Impact of land use on HWC
Our results show that HWC is a sensitive measure for determining subtle changes
within or across ecosystems caused by the management practices. The HWC was

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GHANI ET AL.

sensitive to grazing management and fertilisation treatments within pastoral ecosystem.

Intensively grazed pastures (dairy) had significantly (P<0.05) lower amouts of HWC
than did extensively grazed sheep/beef pastures (Figure 1A). Long-term N application
(200 and 400 kg N ha-1 y-1) on pastoral soils reduced levels of HWC significantly (P
<0.001) when compared with no N added plots (Figure 1C). There was no significant
difference in the amounts of HWC between 200 and 400 kg N treatments. However,
maintenance levels of annual P application (22 kg P ha-1 y-1) had significantly (P
<0.001) increased HWC levels in soils when compared with the control (Figure 1D).
Positive response of P application on HWC in this study was largely due to changes in
the soil organic matter on P responsive sites.
Ecosystem comparison showed that native bush and pastoral sites had significantly
greater amounts of HWC than cropping or market gardening sites (Figure 1B). Between
45 and 60% of the C extracted in HWC was in the form of carbohydrates.

HWC (g C g-1 soil)

HWC (?g/kg soil)

4000
3500

4000
*

3000

3000

2000

2500
2000

1000

1500
1000
Sheep/Beef

HWC (?g
(g CC/g
g-1 soil)
HWC
soil)

3500

Dairy

Market
Garden

5000

3000

Cropping

Dairy Pasture

Native

4000

2500
3000

2000

2000

1500

1000

1000
0

200

400

30

50
-1

Rates of N (kg N ha1y-1)

100

-1

Rates of P (kg P ha y )

Figure 1 (A) Effect of grazing intensities on HWC in soils. Error bars are standard
error of difference of means, (B) Effects of land use on HWC in soils, (C and
D) Effects of N or P applications on HWC. Error bars are standard errors
from the mean values.
Correlation with other soil properties
Our studies showed strong positive correlation between HWC and soil microbial
biomass C (r2 = 0.90) and anaerobically mineralisable N (r2= 0.82) as shown in Figure 2.
A number of studies have advocated inclusion of microbial biomass-C and
mineralisable N in the index of soil quality.
Given such a strong positive correlation between HWC and soil microbial biomassC and mineralisable N, the current research indicates that HWC can be used as a
surrogate measure for assessing these two key components in soils. In comparison to
both microbial biomass-C and mineralisable N, HWC is easier, less time consuming and

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GHANI ET AL.

relatively less expensive to measure. Also, automation of HWC analysis can save
considerable amounts of time.
A

1200

Microbial
C (g g-1 soil)
Microbial C (?g/g soil)

y = 0.2845x - 111.76
2

R = 0.9022

1000
800
600
400
200
0

Mineralisable N (g NH4-N g-1 soil)

Mineralisable N (?g NH 4-N/g

soil)

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

400
y = 0.0605x + 10.417

350

R = 0.8211

300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

Mineralisable N (g NH4-N g-1 soil)

Mineralisable N (?g NH4-N/g soil)

HWC
(?g
C/kg
soil)
HWC
(g
C/kg
soil)

400
y = 0.0605x + 10.417

350

R = 0.8211

300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

HWC
HWC(?g
(gC/kg
C kg-1soil)
soil)

Carbohydrate-C
(?g C g-1 soil)

Carbohydrate-C (g C g-1 soil)

2200
2000

y = 0.52x - 258.2
R2 = 0.88

1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

-1
HWC (g C kg-1 soil)
HWC
(g(?g
C kg
soil)
-1
HWC
Cg
soil)

Figure 2 Correlations between hot-water C and microbial biomass-C, aggregate

stability, mineralisable N, hot-water soil carbohydrates.

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17th WCSS, 14-21 August 2002, Thailand

Soil aggregation is thought to be one of the key physical characteristics of soil

structure and therefore it is important for maintaining favourable soil porosity and
aeration for plant growth. HWC was positively correlated with macro-aggregate
stability determined by wet sieving technique (r2 = 0.74). The greater the concentration
of HWC the greater was the aggregate stability. Our studies have also shown that HWC
consists mostly of carbohydrates, which play important roles in binding soil particles
together. Most of the HWC therefore would have come from polysaccharides
originating from plant roots, microorganisms and decomposed humic substances (Lu et
al., 1998).
Comparison of HWC values in soil samples collected from the same area on a 3
monthly basis showed less than 20% variation from the annual mean values.
Effect of soil storage and methodology
Freezing the field moist screened (4 mm) soil samples for 2-6 months has very little
impact on HWC. There was strong 1:1 correlation between field moist and frozen
samples. However, air-drying increased the level of HWC. This increase ranged
between 3-10% of that was at the field moist stage. Long-term storage (up to a period of
2 years) either in as air-dried or frozen state tended to increase the HWC when
compared with freshly moist soils. HWC measurement can be automated and Total
Organic Carbon analyser can determine about 100 samples a day.
Conclusion
HWC is one of the more sensitive indicators, which can differentiate between
ecosystems such as market gardening and cropping or pastoral and native bush. HWC is
also sensitive to differences within an ecosystem e.g. effects of grazing intensities and
effects of N or P fertilisers within pastoral ecosystems. Given its strong positive
correlation with soil microbial biomass, mineralisable N and soil aggregate stability, it
appears that HWC could be used as integrated measurement of soil quality. During the
extraction of HWC other labile nutrients are also extracted which could be an added
advantage if it is used as an indicator. This measurement may also be helpful in
determining mineralisable capacity of other nutrients in a soil.
Acknowledgements
We thank Foundation for Research, Science and Technology for funding this
project. We thank Drs John Waller and Neil Cox for statistical analysis. We gratefully
acknowledge the support of the participant farmers who allowed us use of their farms
for soil sampling.
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