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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Mineralogy, elemental composition, and organic matter prediction of wetland soils in the Cerrado biome, Brazil

Camila Silva Borges A , Diogo Costa Nascimento B , Tatiane Melo de Lima C , Marcela Vieira da Costa A and Bruno Teixeira Ribeiro https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3108-1125 A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, MG, Brazil.

B Federal Center of Technological Education of Minas Gerais State, Curvelo, MG, Brazil.

C Federal University of Uberlândia, Campus Monte Carmelo, Monte Carmelo, MG, Brazil.

* Correspondence to: brunoribeiro@ufla.br

Handling Editor: Melanie Kah

Soil Research 61(8) 787-798 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR23051
Submitted: 22 March 2023  Accepted: 24 July 2023  Published: 24 August 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Context

The Cerrado, an area of savannah and wetlands in Brazil, is an important wet ecosystem characterised by organic-rich soils that has important environmental functions. In this work, we hypothesised that the total elemental composition obtained via portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) could be useful a tool to predict soil organic matter.

Aims

We aimed to predict the total organic carbon (TOC) content and its fractions (carbon fulvic acid, C-FA; carbon humic acid, C-HA; carbon humin, C-HU) of soils occurring in representative Veredas biome from the Cerrado, Brazil.

Methods

We collected 144 soil samples from surface (0–20 cm) and subsurface (40–70 cm) layers from six representative Veredas environment located in the Cerrado bome, Triângulo Mineiro region, Brazil. These samples were analysed using a pXRF to obtain the total elemental composition. TOC, C-HA, C-FA, and C-HU fractions were determined by wet-oxidation and titration methods. The pXRF data was correlated with TOC and humic substances and later subjected to simple and multiple linear regression (MLR).

Key results

The major elements corroborated the mineralogy of wetland soils. TOC and humic substances, mainly C-HU, were reasonably predicted using pXRF data. All humic substances and TOC were strongly correlated to Pb. Thus, by parsimony, TOC could be reasonable predicted exclusively based on Pb concentration.

Conclusions

We demonstrated that pXRF can be an efficient tool to assess the elemental composition of the Cerrado wetlands soils contributing to still scarce inventory. Further, the elements germane to soil organic matter compounds can be used to predict TOC and its fractions.

Implications

A detailed characterisation of the Cerrado wetland soils in situ can be successfully performed using pXRF in further studies.

Keywords: organic-rich soils, proximal sensors, pXRF, soil analysis, soil organic matter, soil organic matter fractions, spectroscopy, wetland soils.

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