Characterization of labile organic carbon in coastal wetland soils of the Mississippi River deltaic plain: Relationships to carbon functionalities

Adequate characterization of labile organic carbon (LOC) is essential to the understanding of C cycling in soil. There has been very little evaluation about the nature of LOC characterizations in coastal wetlands, where soils are constantly influenced by different redox fluctuations and salt water intrusions. In this study, we characterized and compared LOC fractions in coastal wetland soils of the Mississippi River deltaic plain using four different methods including 1) aerobically mineralizable C (AMC), 2) cold water extractable C (CWEC), 3) hot water extractable C (HWEC), and 4) salt extractable C (SEC), as well as acid hydrolysable C (AHC) which includes both labile and slowly degradable organic C. Molecular organic C functional groups of these wetland soils were characterized by 13C solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The LOC and AHC increased with soil organic C (SOC) regardless of wetland soil type. The LOC estimates by four different methods were positively and significantly linearly related to each other (R2 = 0.62–0.84) and with AHC (R2 = 0.47–0.71). The various LOC fractions accounted for ≤ 4.3% of SOC whereas AHC fraction represented 16–49% of SOC. AMC was influenced positively by O/N-alkyl and carboxyl C but negatively by alkyl C, whereas CWEC and SEC fractions were influenced only positively by carboxyl C but negatively by alkyl C in SOC. On the other hand, HWEC fraction was found to be only influenced positively by carbonyl C, and AHC positively by O/N-alkyl and alkyl C but negatively by aromatic C groups in SOC. Overall these relations suggested different contributions of various molecular organic C moieties to LOC in these wetlands from those often found for upland soils. The presence of more than 50% non-acid hydrolysable C suggested the dominance of relatively stable SOC pool that would be sequestered in these Mississippi River deltaic plain coastal wetland soils. The results have important implications to the understanding of the liability and refractory character of SOC in these wetlands as recent studies suggest marsh SOC to be an important C source in fueling hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

► Labile organic C fractions and slowly released C increased with increasing total soil organic C in wetlands.
► Extraction-oriented labile organic C methods related more closely to each other than with aerobically mineralizable C.
► Various molecular organic C moieties contributed to labile and acid hydrolysable C fractions differently.
► Recalcitrant organic C accounted for 51–84% of total organic C in Mississippi River deltaic plain wetland soils.