Turnover time, carbon dynamics

Bomb Radiocarbon. One of the great uses of radiocarbon for SOM studies is the ability to estimate the turnover time of organic carbon based on the degree to which it has incorporated bomb radiocarbon since 1959. This provides one of the only tools to study C dynamics on decadal time scales. 

Stable isotopes studies. Numerous researchers have taken advantage of the difference in carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis of plants with C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways as a natural tracer to study soil carbon dynamics (Balesdent et al., 1987). If a C3 forest is converted to a C4 pasture or C4 agricultural field, the whole soil carbon turnover time (t) can be calculated as... 

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