INVESTIGADORES
ALVAREZ Roberto
artículos
Título:
Evaluation of the IPCC Tool for predicting soil organic carbon changes in Pampean soils of Argentina
Autor/es:
G. BERHONGARAY Y R. ÁLVAREZ; R. ALVAREZ
Revista:
AGRICULTURE, ECOSYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENT
Editorial:
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Referencias:
Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 181 p. 241 - 245
ISSN:
0167-8809
Resumen:
The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has developed a methodology
for predicting soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and changes known as the IPCC
Tool. We tested the potential use of this tool in soils of the Pampean Region
of Argentina by comparing its predictions with results from a soil survey
performed on 82 farms widely distributed over the region. Uncultivated fields as well as agricultural
soils, both under the crop or the pasture phase of a mixed rotation, were
sampled. Using the default parameters, the IPCC Tool could not predict SOC stocks
of uncultivated fields with an acceptable performance (R2= 0.249
RMSE= 27.7 t ha-1 = 48.5% of the mean SOC stock). On average, the
methodology estimated SOC decreases by cultivation of 21%, but measured SOC
changes were 10-14%. We therefore propose that default parameters values should
be calibrated using local data. Using measured SOC stocks from uncultivated fields
as reference values and locally calibrated parameters, led to an improvement in
the estimation of land use change effect on SOC, but the fitting to observed
results was still poor (R2= 0.403, RMSE= 14.9 t ha-1 = 31
% of the mean SOC stock). Possible causes of this failure of the methodology to
capture land use change effects on SOC are discussed, as well as the
performance attained by other methodologies for estimating SOC in the Pampas.