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Dec 31, 2020Keywords:
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Main Article Content
RESIDUAL EFFECTS OF ORGANIC AND MINERAL FERTILIZER APPLICATION ON CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND AGGREGATE STABILITY IN SAVANNA SOIL
Abstract
Residual effects of organic and mineral fertilizer application on carbon sequestration and aggregate stability in a
savanna soil were investigated, with aim of establishing the relationship between aggregate stability and carbon
sequestration as related to management practices. The study was carried out in the DNPK trial farm at Samaru,
Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria, with four main treatments; cow dung (D), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and
potassium (K) at 3 levels and 81 treatment combinations arranged into nine plots of 220m3 each, with a discard of
0.91m. Surface soil samples were collected from seven plots. The disturbed samples were air-dried, sieved and
analyzed for particle and aggregate size distributions, total and non-hydrolysable organic carbon and total
nitrogen. Soil carbon sequestration rate, clay dispersible index (CDI), and mean weight diameter (MWD) were
also calculated. Data obtained were transformed to account for spatial variability, thereafter subjected to ANOVA
using DMRT to compare the treatment means, and simple linear regression to detect functional relationship
among variables. The results obtained showed that management practices have significant effects on soil carbon,
dry and wet aggregates, MWD and particle size distribution with a high concentration of OC in large macro
aggregate fraction (>2mm). Dry and wet MWD strongly correlated with organic carbon concentration (R2 =
0.939 and 0.797 respectively, P<0.05), showing that OC is central to the formation, stabilization and maintenance
of soil aggregates in DNPK trial farm. SCSR showed no significant changes with management practices
indicating that all management practice have the same rate of carbon sequestration.
