Abstract
As preparation for a below ground food web study, the spatial variability of three soil properties (total N, total C and pH) and two stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N of whole soil) were quantified using geostatistical approaches in upland pastures under contrasting management regimes (grazed, fertilised and ungrazed, unfertilised) in Scotland. This is the first such study of upland, north maritime grasslands. The resulting patterns of variability suggest that to obtain statistically independent samples in this system, a sampling distance of ≥13.5 m is required. Additionally, temporal change (a decline of 1‰) was observed in whole soil δ15N for the grazed, fertilised plot. This may have been caused by new inputs of symbiotically-fixed atmospheric N2.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Addiscott T M, Whitmore A P and Powlson D S 1991 Farming, Fertilisers and the Nitrate Problem. CAB International, Wallingford, UK. 170 p.
Azcón R, Handley L L and Scrimgeour C M 1997 The δ15 N of lettuce and barley are affected by arbuscular mycorrhizal status and by external concentrations of N and P. New Phytol., submitted.
Barthram G T 1985 Experimental techniques: The HFRO sward stick. In The Hill Farming Research Organisation Biennial Report 1984–85. pp 29–30.
Beckett P H T and Webster R 1971 Soil variability: a review. Soils Fertil. 34, 1–15.
Bramley R G V and White R E 1991a An analysis of variability in the activity of nitrifiers in a soil under pasture. I Spatially dependent variability and optimum sampling strategy. Aust. J. Soil Res. 29, 95–108.
Bramley R G V and White R E 1991b An analysis of variability in the activity of nitrifiers in a soil under pasture. II Some problems in the geostatistical analysis of biological soil properties. Aust. J. Soil Res. 29, 109–122.
Burgess T M and Webster R 1980 Optimal interpolation and isarithmic mapping of soil properties. I The semi-variogram and punctual kriging. J. Soil Sci. 31, 315–331.
Deutsch C V and Journel A G 1992 GSLIB. Geostatistical Software Library and User's Guide. Oxford University Press, New York. 340 p.
Farquhar G D and Richards R A 1984 Isotopic composition of plant carbon correlates with water-use efficiency of wheat genotypes. Aust. J. Plant Physiol. 11, 539–552.
Floate M J S 1981 Effects of grazing by large herbivores on nitrogen cycling in agricultural ecosystems. In Terrestrial Nitrogen Cycles: Processes, Ecosystem Strategies and Management Impacts. Eds. F E Page and T Rosswall. pp 585–601. Ecological Bulletins, Stockholm.
Genstat 5 Committee. 1988 GENSTAT 5: Reference Manual. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 796 p.
Glentworth R, Muir J W, Romans J C C, Birse E L, Smith J and Shipley B M 1963 Banchory and Stonehaven Soil Map (Sheets 66 and 67). Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, Aberdeen.
Goovaerts P and Chiang C N 1993 Temporal persistence of spatial patterns for mineralizable nitrogen and selected soil properties. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 57, 372–381.
Griffiths H 1991 Applications of stable isotope technology in physiological ecology. Funct. Ecol. 5, 254–269.
Handley L L, Daft M J, Wilson J, Scrimgeour C M, Ingleby K and Sattar M A 1993 Effects of the ecto-and VA-mycorrhizal fungi Hydnagium carneum and Glomus clarum on the δ15N and δ13C values of Eucalyptus globulus and Ricinus communis. Plant Cell Environ. 16, 375–382.
Handley L L and Raven J A 1992 The use of natural abundance of nitrogen isotopes in plant physiology and ecology. Plant Cell Environ. 15, 965–985.
Handley L L, Robinson D, Forster B P, Ellis R P, Scrimgeour C M, Gordon D C, Nevo E and Raven J A 1997 Shoot 15N correlates with genotype and salt stress in barley. Planta 102, 100–102.
Handley L L and Scrimgeour C M 1997 Terrestrial plant ecology and 15N natural abundance: the present limits to interpretation for uncultivated systems with original data from a Scottish old field. Adv. Ecol. Res. 27, 133–212.
Haynes R J and Williams P H 1993 Nutrient cycling and soil fertility in the grazed pasture ecosystem. Adv. Agron. 49, 119–199.
Jackson R B and Caldwell M M 1993 Geostatistical patterns of soil heterogeneity around individual perennial plants. J. Ecol. 81, 683–692.
Jensen E S 1996 Rhizodeposition of N by pea and barley and its effect on soil N dynamics. Soil Biol. Biochem. 28, 65–71.
Journel A G 1984 The place of non-parametric statistics. In Geostatistics for Natural Resources Characterization. Part 1. Eds. G Verly, M David, A Marechal and A Journel. pp 307–335. Reidel, Dordecht, The Netherlands.
Journel A G and Huijbregts C J 1978 Mining Geostatistics. Academic Press, London. 600 p.
Journel A G and Rossi M 1989 When do we need a trend model in kriging? Math. Geol. 21, 715–739.
McBratney A B R, Webster R and Burgess TM 1981 The design of optimal sampling schemes for local estimation and mapping of regionalized variables. I. Theory and method. Comput. Geosci. 7, 331–334.
Marriott C A, Bolton G R, Common T G, Small J L and Barthram G T 1996 Effects of extensification of sheep grazing systems on animal production and species composition of the sward. In Grassland and Land Use Systems, Proceedings of the 16th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation. Eds. G Parente, J Frame and S Orsi. pp 505–509. ERSA, Gorizia, Italy.
Matheron G 1965 Les variables régionalisées et leur estimation. Masson, Paris. 306 p.
Matthew C, Cresswell A and Haggar R J 1995 Characteristics of microsites with and without white clover in two field swards. Grass For. Sci. 50, 178–181.
O'Leary M H, Madhavan S and Paneth P 1992 Physical and chemical basis of carbon isotope fractionation in plants. Plant Cell Environ. 15, 1099–1104.
Oliver M A and Webster R 1986a Combining nested and linear sampling for determining the scale and form of spatial variation of regionalized variables. Geogr. Anal. 18, 227–242.
Oliver M A and Webster R 1986b Semi-variograms for modelling the spatial pattern of landform and soil properties. Earth Surface Process. Landforms 11, 491–504.
Oliver M A and Webster R 1991 How geostatistics can help you. Soil Use Manage. 7, 206–217.
Peterson B J and Fry B 1987 Stable isotopes in ecosystem studies. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 18, 293–320.
Preston T and McMillan D C 1988 Rapid sample throughput for biomedical stable isotope tracer studies. Biomed. Environ. Mass Spectrom. 16, 229–235.
Robinson D and Van Vuuren M M I 1998 How do fast-and slowgrowing plants respond to soil variability in space and time? In Variation in Plant Growth. Eds. H Lambers, H Poorter and M M I Van Vuuren. Backhuys, Leiden. (In press).
Rundel P W, Ehleringer J R and Nagy K A 1989 Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research. Springer Verlag, New York. 525 p.
Ryel R J, Caldwell M M and Manwaring J H 1996 Temporal dynamics of soil spatial heterogeneity in sagebrush-wheatgrass steppe during a growing season. Plant Soil 184, 299–309.
van Kessel C, Farrell R E and Pennock D J 1994 Carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 natural abundance in crop residues and soil organic matter. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 58, 382–389.
Webster R 1977 Quantitative and Numerical Methods in Soil Classification and Survey. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 269 p.
Webster R 1985 Quantitative spatial analysis of soil in the field. Adv. Soil Sci 3, 1–70.
Webster R and Butler B E 1976 Soil classification and survey studies at Ginninderra. Aust. J. Soil Res. 14, 1–24.
Yoneyama T 1995 Nitrogen metabolismand fractionation of nitrogen isotopes in plants. In Stable Isotopes in the Biosphere. Eds. E Wada, T Yoneyama, M. Minagawa, T Ando and B D Fry. pp 92–102. Kyoto University Press, Kyoto.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Marriott, C., Hudson, G., Hamilton, D. et al. Spatial variability of soil total C and N and their stable isotopes in an upland Scottish grassland. Plant and Soil 196, 151–162 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004288610550
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004288610550