Long-term storage of air-dried samples compromises water-extractable organic carbon as a soil health indicator

Mahmood, Swarnali; Celestin, Franky; Arruda Huggins de Sá Leitão, Diego; Champiny, Ryan E.; Wang, Xinlin; Donald, JoAnn B.; Plauche, Audrey; Córdova, S. Carolina; Sprunger, Christine D.; Maltais-Landry, Gabriel; Lin, Yang

doi:10.5194/soil-12-937-2026

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-937-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-937-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

Short communication

|

23 Sep 2026

Short communication |

| 23 Sep 2026

Long-term storage of air-dried samples compromises water-extractable organic carbon as a soil health indicator

Swarnali Mahmood, Franky Celestin, Diego Arruda Huggins de Sá Leitão, Ryan E. Champiny, Xinlin Wang, JoAnn B. Donald, Audrey Plauche, S. Carolina Córdova, Christine D. Sprunger, Gabriel Maltais-Landry, and Yang Lin

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-937-2026-supplement

Data sets

Long-term storage of air-dried samples compromises water-extractable organic carbon as a soil health indicator S. Mahmood et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22696632

Short summary

Soil health tests often use sensitive indicators, but their reliability after long-term storage is unclear. Using air-dried archived soils from a cover crop experiment, we found that three years of storage nearly doubled water-extractable organic carbon. Similar water-extractable organic carbon patterns across different long-term agricultural experiment sites show that storage can distort concentrations, so archived samples should be interpreted with caution.