Mapping the temporal change of soil carbon: A case study from northern New South Wales, Australia

摘要

The objective of this study was to map the temporal change of soil carbon at the catchment scale using legacy soil data as the baseline. The study area was the Cox's Creek catchment in northern NSW, Australia. The legacy data were collected in 2000-2002 (referred to as 2000) and re-sampling was carried out in 2010. A linear model of co-regionalization was fitted to the datasets. There was no evidence found for spatial cross-correlation between two time periods. Therefore, two separate linear mixed models were fitted. Globally there is a decrease in soil carbon content across the catchment. Out of the total area, 6 km2 (0.4%) was estimated to have experienced statistically significant change in soil carbon at the 0.05 probability level while there was 17 km2 (1.2%) at 0.10 probability level. Statistically significant changes in soil carbon were mainly recorded in the forested areas of the catchment, specifically in the southern region.