Mineralization of Eroded Organic Carbon Transported from a Loess Soil into Water

The fate of soil-derived organic C (SOC) transported during erosion is a large uncertainty in assessing the impact of soil erosion on aquatic environments and in balancing C budgets. In our study, we determined C mineralization from solid soil organic C and dissolved organic C (DOC) translocated from a loess soil into surface water. We used runoff generated during rainfall simulation experiments. Both total runoff C and DOC were incubated to measure CO2 evolution during 28-d experiments. Cumulative CO2 emissions from runoff accounted for 3.9 to 4.8% of initial runoff C. It was estimated that 3.3 to 3.7% of initial solid SOC was mineralized contributing to 69 to 80% of total C mineralization from runoff. Mineralization of DOC was larger (7.3-30.2% of initial DOC) and showed a much larger variability than mineralization from solid SOC. However, DOC mineralization contributed to 20 to 31% of total C mineralization from runoff only because of the much smaller amounts of DOC than solid SOC. We could confirm a preferential removal of labile C from soils by water erosion. Nevertheless, the majority of this C will contribute to an aquatic C sink with less than 5% being potentially mineralizable. Our results indicated that the base level of C mineralization from translocated C was derived from the solid phase whereas the variability depends largely on DOC.