Rapid analysis of soil carbon in wetlands, using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

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    Abstract

    Measuring soil carbon stores and fluxes is important for our ability to understand ecosystem health and carbon sequestration. Soil carbon can be measured in a range of ways, most usually and simply by loss on ignition (LOI) at temperatures from 375 to 850 °C and durations from 0.5 to 16 h, with the application of a conversion factor to convert LOI to organic carbon. The lack of a standard method is not the only complexity; the loss on ignition metric is prone to error as waters of formation are lost from hydrated minerals including salts, clays and other minerals. In field measurements of soil carbon are now possible using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). Measurements are fast, inexpensive and have reasonable accuracies. Here, we present a measurement program for soil carbon from a wetland in semi-arid central NSW, and we will highlight some of the advantages and pitfalls of using LIBS for measurement of soil carbon
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationWIDS2017 Dynamic Landscapes
    Subtitle of host publicationproceedings of the Wetlands in Drylands Research Network Conference
    EditorsTimothy J. Ralph
    Place of PublicationSydney, Australia
    PublisherMacquarie University
    Pages14
    Number of pages1
    ISBN (Print)9781741384543
    Publication statusPublished - 24 Jul 2017

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