Articles | Volume 1, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-537-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-537-2015
Short communication
 | 
28 Jul 2015
Short communication |  | 28 Jul 2015

14C in cropland soil of a long-term field trial – experimental variability and implications for estimating carbon turnover

J. Leifeld and J. Mayer

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Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (19 May 2015) by Boris Jansen
AR by Jens Leifeld on behalf of the Authors (30 Jun 2015)  Author's response   Manuscript 
ED: Publish as is (04 Jul 2015) by Boris Jansen
ED: Publish as is (08 Jul 2015) by Kristof Van Oost (Executive editor)
AR by Jens Leifeld on behalf of the Authors (14 Jul 2015)
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Short summary
We present 14C data for field replicates of a controlled agricultural long-term experiment. We show that 14C variability is, on average, 12 times that of the analytical precision of the 14C measurement. Experimental 14C variability is related to neither management nor soil depth. Application of a simple carbon turnover model reveals that experimental variability of radiocarbon results in higher absolute uncertainties of estimated carbon turnover time for deeper soil layers.