Organic carbon controls water retention and plant available water in cultivated soils from South Greenland

The warming climate is rapidly changing the circumpolar region, presenting new opportunities and challenges for agricultural production in South Greenland. The warming climate is projected to increase the frequency of drought periods, but little is known about the soil-water retention (SWR) and the plant available water (PAW) of the agricultural soils in the region. This study aimed to measure the SWR and PAW of Greenlandic agricultural soils and evaluate the effect of organic carbon (OC) and clay (CL) content using pedotransfer functions based on OC and CL. The study included 464 South Greenlandic agricultural soil samples from 20 fields with a wide distribution in clay (0.016-0.184 kg kg(-1)) and OC contents (0.006-0.254 kg kg(-1)). Pedotransfer functions were successfully developed for estimating the gravimetric water content (w) at five soil-water potentials (-1500, -100, -30, -10, and -5 kPa) and PAW. The OC content was the primary variable governing the gravimetric water content at each soil-water potential, evidenced by R-2 values consistently above 0.80. The effect of OC on the gravimetric water content at -1500 kPa was close to the range reported in the literature, but OC effects were markedly higher between -100 and -5 kPa. Overall, this study highlights a substantial effect of OC on the PAW as a 1% increase in OC increased PAW by more than 4%, which is almost twice the value of a recent meta-study. Our study highlights the potentially dominating effects of organic matter on soil-water balance and availability in high-latitude agriculture.

Automated summary

The warming climate in the circumpolar region is bringing new opportunities and challenges for agriculture in South Greenland. However, little is known about the soil-water retention and plant available water in the region. This study measured the soil-water retention and plant available water of Greenlandic agricultural soils, and found that organic carbon content has a significant effect on the water content and availability in the soil.