ABSTRACT
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a major pool that impacts the global carbon cycle (Lai, 1999). Increasing SOC pool is desirable because of its favorable effects on improving soil fertility, decreasing water and air pollution, and mitigating the greenhouse effect caused by various energy utilization activities such as fossil fuel combustion. The amount of SOC depends on kinetic competition between various input and output processes. The input processes include plant growth (plant residue, root excretion, and organic matter through-fall), addition of organic material (manure, sewage sludge, and other organic wastes) through soil management, and deposition through soil erosion. The output processes comprise decomposition into gases, leaching into groundwater, and removal through soil erosion. Assessment of these processes is one of the steps toward adopting the strategy of increasing SOC content.
