Forest land-use increases soil organic carbon quality but not its structural or thermal stability in a hedgerow system

How land-use and soil depth affect soil organic carbon (SOC) quality and stability, properties that are key to the long-term storage of C, is poorly understood in agroforestry systems. We examined the effects of land-use (forest vs. annual cropland) and soil depth (0–10 vs. 10–30 cm) on the quality (availability of C for decomposition), structural stability (composition of C functional groups), and thermal stability (energy yield and temperature characteristics during thermal oxidation) of SOC in a hedgerow system in central Alberta, using solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and thermal analysis methods. The SOC quality (proportion of O-alkyl C) was higher, while the proportion of H- and C-substituted aromatic C and structural stability (hydrophobicity index (HB/HI), aromaticity index (ARM), and alkyl index (A/OA)) were all lower in the forest than in the cropland. The SOC also had lower thermal stability (higher energy density and lower temperature at which 50% of the mass was lost (TG-T50)) in the forest than in the cropland. Between the two soil depths, SOC quality (proportion of N-alkyl C, O-alkyl C and di-O-alkyl C) was higher, but the proportion of H- and C-substituted aromatic C and structural and thermal stabilities were lower, within the surficial 0–10 cm layer than in the 10–30 cm soil. We conclude that while the forest land-use within the hedgerow system had a higher SOC quality, it had lower SOC structural and thermal stabilities, suggesting that SOC under the forest land-use may be more susceptible to decline under climate change or other forms of anthropogenic disturbance.