ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Effect of Agricultural Land-Use Patterns
on Soil Organic Carbon Stock in the Upper
Vietnamese Mekong Delta
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1
Department of Environmental Science, Dong Thap University, 783 Pham Huu Lau Street,
870000 Cao Lanh City, Dong Thap, Vietnam
2
Department of Land Management, Dong Thap University, 783 Pham Huu Lau Street,
870000 Cao Lanh City, Dong Thap, Vietnam
3
Division of Biology, Dong Thap University, 783 Pham Huu Lau Street,
870000 Cao Lanh City, Dong Thap, Vietnam
4
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
5
Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstr. 2, 48149 Münster, Germany
Submission date: 2022-03-19
Final revision date: 2022-07-11
Acceptance date: 2022-07-11
Online publication date: 2022-10-17
Publication date: 2022-12-08
Corresponding author
Nguyen Thi Hai Ly
Department of Environmental Science, Dong Thap University, Pham Huu Lau, 870000, Cao Lanh City, Viet Nam
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2022;31(6):5793-5804
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ABSTRACT
In the mitigation strategies of climate change, improving soil carbon storage is considered as one
of the main tasks to enhance agricultural sustainability and sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Agricultural patterns have been changing significantly and causing many impacts on soil organic carbon
(SOC) storage in the upper Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD). Therefore, this study aims to evaluate
how typical agricultural pattern changes are affecting SOC by estimating the SOC stock and identifying
the correlation with soil physic-chemical properties. Soil samples were collected in both depths of
0-20 cm and 20-50 cm and analyzed physic-chemical properties such as soil texture, bulk density, pHKCl,
EC and SOC. In topsoil layers, the SOC stock of the wetland forest was the highest in the opened
depression of floodplain (24.42±1.38 kg C m-2; p<0.05) while that of paddy rice was the richest at depth
of 20-50 cm (27.69±2.97 kg C m-2; p<0.05). In other agro-ecological areas, SOC stock in croplands was
lower than forest and grassland in topsoil layer, especially in mountainous areas. SOC stock correlated
positively with SOC content, clay, bulk density, and EC (p<0.05) but had a negative correlation with
sand and pHKCl (p<0.05). The decrease in SOC stock in dry cultivating patterns indicated the impact
of agricultural management practices and soil fertility on SOC storage. Thus, improving SOC stock is needed to maintain sustainable soil management. That can be done by increasing C input and
decreasing C loss in the atmosphere.