Depth profiles of soil organic carbon isotopes across a lithosequence: implications for drivers of soil delta C-13 vertical changes

To addresshow parent materials are affecting organic carbon dynamics in a soil profile, soils from a lithosequence comprising six parent lithologies under a rangeland ecosystem have been explored at three depth intervals for soil organic carbon (SOC) content and its C-13 depth trends. Studied parent materials ranged from metamorphic (foliated: FM and non-foliated: NFM) to sedimentary (clastic carbonate: CCS) to plutonic (intermediate: IP, felsic: FP and intermediate felsic: IFP) geological contexts. The relationship between SOC concentration and its isotopic signatures to a depth of 50 cm in FM, NFM, FP and IFP profiles was well described by the kinetic fractionation of SOC during biodegradation. For CCS and IP lithologies, strong divergence from the Rayleigh equation was observed suggesting that the C-13 enrichments in these soils resulted from both mixing different SOC pools and isotope fractionation related to the C mineralization. Results suggest that SOC across the lithosequence goes through different isotopic evolutions resulting from different C-13-enriched inputs and pedogenic properties as described by the extended Rayleigh equation (0 <= beta(C )<= 0.80). These are presumably caused by the bedrock lithology implying that parent material affects C storage and dynamics.