Using magnetic susceptibility mapping for assessing soil degradation due to water erosion.
Jaksik O. Kodesova R. Kapicka A. Klement A. Fer M. Nikodem A. (2016) Using magnetic susceptibility mapping for assessing soil degradation due to water erosion. Soil Water Res. 11: 105 113. This study focused on developing a method for estimating topsoil organic carbon content from measured massspecific magnetic susceptibility in Chernozems heavily affected by water erosion. The study was performed on a 100 ha area, whereby 202 soil samples were taken. A set of soil samples was divided into 3 subsets: A (32 samples) B (67 samples) and C (103 samples) The mass specific magnetic susceptibility using low kh lf and high kh hf frequency, and organic carbon content were measured at all soil samples. The contents of iron and manganese, extracted with a dithionite citrate solution (Fe d Mn d and ammonium oxalate (Fe o Mn o were quantified in A and B samples. Models for predicting organic carbon content from magnetic susceptibilities were designed as follows: (1) subset A was used as the training set for calibration, and subsets B and C were used as the test sets for model validation, either separately (subset B only) or together (merged subsets B and C) (2) merged subsets A and B were used as the training set and subset C was used as the test set. Results showed very close correlations between organic carbon content and all measured soil properties. Obtained models relating organic carbon content to mass specific magnetic susceptibility successfully predicted soil organic carbon contents.