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The Biological Origins of Soil Organic Matter in Different Land-Uses in the Highlands of Ethiopia

In the Ethiopian highlands, clearance of Afromontane dry forest and conversion to crop and grazing land lead to land degradation and loss of soil organic matter (SOM). Eucalyptus is often grown on degraded soils, and this results in the partial recovery of soil carbon stocks. The aim of this work was to assess the biological sources of SOM in this land-use sequence. In top-soils (0–10 cm) of four land-use systems, namely remnant natural forest, eucalyptus plantation, cropland, and grazing land, in the Ethiopian highlands, the origin of SOM was investigated. For this, a sequential extraction method was used, involving a solvent extraction, base hydrolysis, and a subsequent CuO oxidation. In these extracts, biomarkers (molecular proxies) were identified to characterize the SOM of the soil of the four land-uses. Putative lipid monomers of leaf, root, and microbial degradation products suggest that root inputs and microbial inputs dominate in SOM of all the land-uses, except grazing land. The ratios of syringyls, vanillyls, and cinnamyls showed that non-woody angiosperm plants were the predominant source for lignin in eucalyptus, cropland, and grazing land soil. In the soils of the natural forest, lignin originates from both woody angiosperms and woody gymnosperms. Our study shows the importance of root and microbial inputs in the formation of SOM, but also that, in the natural forest, legacies of previous forest cover are present.