Effects of Compost on Soil Organic Carbon - 4008

Principal Investigator: Whendee Silver, University of California, Berkeley

Rangelands cover an estimated 40-70% of global landmass, approximately one-third of the landmass of the United States and half of California. The soils of this vast land area has high carbon (C) storage capacity, which makes it an important target ecosystem for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emission and effects on climate change, in particular under land management techniques that favor increased C sequestration rates (Silver et al., 2010). Studying the effect of various types of soil amendments on soil organic carbon content in dependence of C:N ratios will hence yield insights critical for improving maintenance of global Mediterranean grasslands.