Soil organic carbon in native prairies of the midwest of the United States

Environmentally, carbon plays many roles in different systems due to its abundance on Earth. The best known role of carbon to the general public may be atmospheric carbon with the rise of topics such as: global warming, greenhouse gases, and carbon footprints. Carbon dioxide, CO2, is one of the greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide gas enters the atmosphere by living organisms and fossil fuel emissions from industrialization. Researchers collected and analyzed of soil organic carbon (SOC) data from native prairies and compared against adjacently located cultivated soils that have produced corn, soybean, or both. All soil samples taken from both prairie and cultivated lands were analyzed for SOC by the wet oxidation technique, Walkley-Black method. The Walkley-Black method and statistical analysis were used to determine that soils from native prairies had significantly more SOC than adjacent cultivated soils that have undergone tillage. The most SOC was found to be contained in the upper 0 to 7.5 cm depth of all soils, then drastically deceased with increasing depth.