Abstract
Purpose
Urbanization is a major driver of land use change and can affect the soil organic carbon (SOC) pools. This study aimed to understand the urbanization impact on SOC stocks and pools at profile scale (0–100 cm).
Methods
The SOC was studied at 0–30 and 0–100 cm depths in park and sealed soils of three French cities (Marseille, Nancy, and Nantes). Physical fractionation was performed to gain insight on the size of different SOC pools (particulate and organo-mineral soil fractions).
Results
The SOC stocks were seven to ten times higher in parks than in sealed soils, but lower than in natural soils according to literature data. The contribution of the first 30 cm to profile SOC stock was around 40%, with strong heterogeneity, especially in sealed soils. Considering the whole 0–100 cm profile, SOC stocks in particulate organic matter fractions (light fraction > 50 µm) were 25–48 times higher in parks than in sealed soils, while SOC stocks in mineral-associated fractions (< 50 µm) were only 4–6 times higher in parks than in sealed soils. An unexpectedly high proportion of SOC was found in the heavy fraction > 50 µm, particularly in sealed soils (11% in average at 0–100 cm depth). This fraction associated to sand is usually poor in SOC in natural or agricultural soils. In these urban soils, it might be bitumen, a dense organic artifact.
Conclusion
The SOC stocks up to 100 cm depth and their heterogeneity pleaded to strengthen and expand SOC studies in all urban soils.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the SUPRA project (grant number 1772C0021), founded by ADEME (French Environmental Agency), which also founded the PhD grant of the first author, with the Région Pays de la Loire. Aurélie Cambou’s PhD manuscript (“Evaluation du stock et de la stabilité du carbone organique dans les sols urbains”; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02088714), already published in December 2018, was used as a support to write this article. We would like to thank the INRAE laboratory of soil analyses of Arras (France), Claudie Mazzega, Yvette Roussel and Lucas Charrois for the soil physicochemical analyses, Aude Aguzou for the coarse element photography and Dominique Renard for his help in sampling work. We also would like to thank INSEE (France) and Infoclimat (France) for providing data. Finally, we thank Lydie Lardy-Chapuis (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development; IRD) for her support. We would also like to thank the municipalities of Marseille, Nancy and Nantes for the access given to the investigation sites. Finally, helpful comments by the anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged.
Funding
The research was supported by the SUPRA project (grant number 1772C0021), financed by ADEME (French Environmental Agency), which also financed the PhD grant of the lead author, with the Région Pays de la Loire.
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Cambou, A., Chevallier, T., Barthès, B.G. et al. The impact of urbanization on soil organic carbon stocks and particle size and density fractions. J Soils Sediments 23, 792–803 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03352-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03352-3