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Determining phytolith-occluded organic carbon sequestration using an upgraded optimized extraction method: indicating for a missing carbon pool

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Abstract

Phytolith-occluded organic carbon (PhytOC) is considered one of the most promising terrestrial carbon (C) sinks. Different methods are used for phytolith extraction from wet-ashing techniques and the subsequent determination of PhytOC content from soil. This is in order to optimize the wet-ashing techniques and to improve estimation accuracy of C sequestration potential of phytoliths from soil. Results show that the organic matter removal and carbonate removal protocol, applying sonication, has a significant effect on phytolith extraction. Namely, the sequential removal of first organic matter and then carbonates applied to such methods could eliminate greater than 17.14, 46.68, and 26.17% extraneous material compared to other methods. Moreover, phytoliths extracted using methods that apply sonication eliminated 7.49, 42.70, and 17.57% more extraneous material than methods that did not. Additionally, the procedure associated with the second oxidation step significantly influenced the determination of PhytOC content, that is, 29.34, 33.75, 26.41, and 64.64% of excess organic C were oxidized during this step. The upgraded optimal method we recommend for phytolith extraction in association with wet-ashing techniques and the subsequent determination of PhytOC content is therefore to first apply sonication, then the second oxidation step, and finally the removal of organic matter. Using this optimal upgraded method, we estimated the C sequestration potential of phytoliths from the soil of slash pine in China at 0.51 Mt. C. Furthermore, using this upgraded optimal method increased the precision of the carbon sequestration potential of phytoliths from soil by up to 63.83%.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all anonymous reviewers for their helpful remarks.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 31570465 and 41571130043), National Key Research Program of China (2016YFC0500202), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

    Ning Han, Yang Gao, Zhuo Hao, Jing Tian & Xianwei Song

  2. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Ning Han, Yang Gao, Zhuo Hao & Jing Tian

  3. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Yufei Yang

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA

    Tiantian Yang

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  1. Ning Han
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  2. Yufei Yang
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  3. Yang Gao
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  4. Zhuo Hao
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  5. Jing Tian
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  7. Xianwei Song
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Correspondence to Yufei Yang or Yang Gao.

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Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu

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Han, N., Yang, Y., Gao, Y. et al. Determining phytolith-occluded organic carbon sequestration using an upgraded optimized extraction method: indicating for a missing carbon pool. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 24507–24515 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2706-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2706-7

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