Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978

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Journal of Arid Environments

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv

Measuring the stability of soil organic carbon in Arenosols in the Senegalese

Groundnut Basin
Oscar Pascal Malou a, b, c, d, *, Tiphaine Chevallier e, Patricia Moulin a, f, David Sebag c, g,
Murielle Nancy Rakotondrazafy e, Ndeye Yacine Badiane-Ndour a, h, 1, Abou Thiam b,
Lydie Chapuis-Lardy a, e
a
LMI IESOL, ISRA-IRD Bel-Air Center, Dakar, Senegal
b
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
c
IFP Energies Nouvelles, Sciences de la Terre et Technologies de l’Environnement Department, Rueil-Malmaison, France
d
VALORHIZ SAS, Agropolis Scientific Park, Montpellier, France
e
Eco&Sols, IRD, CIRAD, INRA, Univ Montpellier, Institut Agro, F-34398, Montpellier, France
f
LAMA, Imago, IRD, IRD-ISRA Bel-Air Center, Dakar, Senegal
g
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, Geopolis, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
h
LNRPV, ISRA, Center ISRA-IRD Bel-Air, Dakar, Senegal

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Soil organic carbon (SOC) contributes to agrosystem productivity. Understanding how farming practices
Tropical sandy soils implemented by smallholders affect the levels and distribution of SOC in carbon (C) pools with different sta­
Agricultural practices bilities is essential in sub-Saharan Arenosols where SOC mineralization is intense. The stability of SOC was
Particulate organic matter
studied by thermal (Therm-C), physical (particulate organic matter >50 μm, POM-C and fine soil fractions <50
Permanganate-oxidizable carbon
Mineralized carbon
μm, FF-C), chemical (permanganate-oxidizable carbon, POX-C) and biological (mineralizable C, Min-C) ap­
Rock-Eval® thermal analysis proaches. Soil samples were collected at depths of 0–10 and 10–30 cm in cultivated fields (out- or home-fields)
without any input, with millet residues, amended with manure, or with household organic wastes. Globally,
average SOC contents were low (<6 g C kg-1). The variability in SOC and C pool contents was sensitive to field
management. The different approaches to measuring the stability of SOC did not measure the same fraction of
SOC. POM-C and Therm-C were correlated and both explained Min-C similarly, thus suggesting that in these
sandy soils, POM-C or Therm-C probably measured comparable properties of the stability of C. The lack of re­
lationships between POX-C and other pools suggested that POX-C encompassed a different nature of SOC while
providing complementary information on the biogeochemical stability of SOC.

1. Introduction
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is attracting more interest than ever from
the scientific community because of its importance in achieving food
security and mitigating climate change (Keesstra et al., 2016; Smith
et al., 2020). Consequently, its key role in agricultural soil fertility and
anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is high on international
agendas (Minasny et al., 2017; Soussana et al., 2017). While the fight
against climate change requires documenting soil C stocks and their
long-term persistence, sustainable productivity of agrosystems requires
understanding the behavior of labile pools that contribute to the
recycling of plant nutrients and soil fertility (Janzen, 2006; Kaye and
Hart, 1997). Many studies have focused on the stability of different soil
C pools at temperate latitudes (e.g., Bongiorno et al., 2019), as well as
some others in the tropics (e.g., Duval et al., 2018). However, few data
exist on arid or semiarid environments and on sandy soils with a limited
SOC content.
In Sahelian countries, SOC levels in sandy soils are low and depend
on regular organic inputs (Fujisaki et al., 2018a; Yost and Hartemink,
2019). Indeed, the fertilization of soils is performed essentially by
organic inputs to soils, such as manure, organic wastes from household
activities or crop residues, because access to inorganic fertilizers is very

* Corresponding author. LMI IESOL, ISRA-IRD Bel-Air Center, Dakar, Senegal.

E-mail address: opmalou@gmail.com (O.P. Malou).
1
Current address, FAO, regional office, Dakar, Senegal.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2023.104978
Received 3 June 2022; Received in revised form 22 December 2022; Accepted 13 March 2023
0140-1963/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
O.P. Malou et al.
limited for smallholder farmers (Harris, 2002; Tounkara et al., 2020).
However, these organic amendment inputs are variable in frequency and
in their distribution within farmer fields (Tittonell et al., 2013). They
depend on available organic resources and on the location of fields more
or less distant from habitations (known as out- and home-fields,
respectively; Manlay et al., 2004). Consequently, a high heterogeneity
of SOC contents was noticed in the sub-Saharan agricultural landscape,
e.g., from 2 to 11 g C kg− 1 in out-fields and up to 19 g C kg− 1 in
home-fields in cultivated Arenosols in the Senegalese Groundnut Basin
(Malou et al., 2021). Since mineralization could be intense (Yemadje
et al. 2016), the specificity of the biogeochemical stability of SOC in
Sahelian soils should be studied to improve or at least maintain SOC in
these environments. We consider biogeochemical stability as the
decrease in the bioavailability of SOC to decomposition by microor­
ganisms (Sollins et al., 1996).
In the literature, different proxies related to the biogeochemical
stability of SOC have been proposed. Particle-size fractionation sepa­
rates soil into SOC size fractions with different turnovers, e.g., particu­
late organic matter (POM or POM-C to refer to the SOC contained in
POM) and organic matter associated with the mineral fine fraction (FF or
FF-C to refer to the SOC contained in FF). This physical approach pro­
vides insight into the stabilization and decomposition processes of SOC
(Lavallee et al., 2020; Poeplau et al., 2018). FF-C is recognized to persist
much longer than POM-C in soils due to protection from mineralization
through chemical bonds with soil minerals or occlusion within micro­
pores. POM-C, mostly composed of free plant debris in soils, is recog­
nized to be less protected against mineralization. Moreover, in arid and
semiarid sandy soils, POM-C usually undergoes rapid and intense
mineralization (Bernhard-Reversat, 1981; Feller and Beare, 1997)
compared with the C associated with the fine fraction, which is
considered to be more intimately linked to the mineral matrix and
resistant to mineralization (Chivenge et al., 2007; Fujisaki et al., 2018a).
Chemical extractions based on carbon oxidation, such as
permanganate-oxidizable carbon (POX-C), have also been proposed as
indicators of SOC sensitivity to mineralization or so-called “active C"
(Weil et al., 2003). POX-C has been proposed as an indicator to track
SOM dynamics (Bongiorno et al., 2019; Hurisso et al., 2016). However,
the nature of this oxidizable organic matter is debated. The “activity” or
lability of POX-C is not clear (Romero et al., 2018). These authors have
indeed shown that the treatment of SOM with KMnO4 leads to the
extraction of OM enriched with strongly reduced chemical constituents,
a greater condensed aromaticity and a greater saturation in hydrogen
(aliphatic composition). Incubation experiments in controlled condi­
tions measuring CO2 emissions related to microbial activity, which is
dependent on substrate availability and other edaphic conditions
(Balota et al., 2003; Domeignoz-Horta et al., 2021), have allowed the
measurement of mineralizable carbon, denoted as Min-C (Awale et al.,
2017; Guo et al., 2019). The thermal stability of SOC has been investi­
gated using Rock-Eval® thermal analysis (Lafargue et al., 1998), which
is one method among others to measure the thermal stability of SOM,
such as thermogravimetry (Plante et al., 2009) or ramped
pyrolysis-oxidation (Sanderman and Grandy, 2020). This method iden­
tifies different thermal pools of SOC (Disnar et al., 2003) and the thermal
stability of SOC can be compared to its biogeochemical stability
(Cécillon et al., 2018; Plante et al., 2011). In sandy soils in the Sene­
galese Groundnut Basin, Malou et al. (2020) documented a depletion of
organic compounds with intermediate thermal stability, which tend to
accumulate in other environments (Sebag et al., 2016). The thermal
stability and biogeochemical stability of SOC seem to be specific to the
pedoclimatic conditions. In Sahelian soils, the thermally labile but also
resistant pyrolizable hydrocarbon pools (together noted as Therm-C)
seem to be sensitive to mineralization. However, no study has yet
compared SOC mineralization and SOC thermal stability in Sahelian
soils.
All these proxies or C pools (POM-C, POX-C, Min-C and Therm-C)
characterizing SOC stability can be compared. For example, in
2
Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978
temperate soils, POM-C and Min-C seemed to distinguish C pools with
different thermal stabilities (Soucémarianadin et al., 2018). However,
the different approaches and proxies for characterizing the SOC stability
are usually used on separate sample sets, sometimes in pairs, but rarely
all together as far as we know. The consistency between the proxies or
the divergent information given by proxies have been poorly tested (e.g.,
Cécillon et al., 2018; Plante et al., 2011). The appreciation of the proxies
to define SOC stability could also depend on the pedoclimatic condi­
tions. Thus, some studies have considered POX-C as an active or labile
pool (Weil et al., 2003), while others have defined it as a labile-stabilized
pool (Romero et al., 2018; Culman et al., 2012). Comparing different
proxies from soil sampled under similar pedoclimatic conditions and
varying soil management and SOC contents should provide additional
information on the C pools measured by these different approaches. This
raises the question of the relationships between the physical, chemical,
or thermal properties of organic matter measured in the laboratory and
the environmental factors that control SOC dynamics in the field. We
hypothesized that SOC content heterogeneity in Sahelian soils comes
with a high heterogeneity of all C pools in relation to the large array of
existing farmer fields considering organic inputs and location of the
fields. We hypothesized that POM-C, POX-C, Min-C and Therm-C pro­
vide additional information on the stability of carbon in soils. The
different approaches used to characterize the stability of C do not
measure the same C pools. We hypothesized that Min-C, as the miner­
alizable C in the short term and considered the most direct measure of C
stability, is a combination of the other C pools, i.e., POM-C, POX-C and
Therm-C.
To further investigate the consistency and possible links between
SOC biogeochemical stability proxies, we analyzed physical (POM-C),
chemical (POX-C) and biological (Min-C) C pools on the same sample set
used for thermal analysis by Malou et al. (2020). The objectives of this
study are twofold. The first objective is to characterize and explain the
spatial heterogeneity of the C pools. The second objective is to charac­
terize the stability of SOC and analyze the consistency between the
proxies used to characterize SOC stability in such semiarid
environments.
2. Materials
2.1. Study site description
The study area is located in the Groundnut Basin of Senegal, which is
the main agricultural area of the country. In this agricultural landscape,
the woody vegetation is dominated by Faidherbia albida constituting
agroforestry parks. The soils are developed on Tertiary sandstone for­
mations that received additional eolian deposits. They are classified as
Arenosols, poor in clay (less than 10%, mainly kaolinite) and poorly
fertile due to low buffer and exchange capacity (IUSS Working Group
WRB, 2015). The climate is Sudano-Sahelian, with an average annual
temperature of 30 ◦ C and an average annual rainfall of 530 mm, marked
by a strong seasonal contrast, with a rainy season (July to October)
suitable for crops and a dry season during which the soils are generally
not exploited.
Two villages were selected within the rural municipality of Niakhar:
Diohine-Sassem (14◦ 29′ 51′′ N and 16◦ 30′ 36′′ W) and Sob (14◦ 29′ 16′′ N
and 16◦ 26′ 3′′ W). A mapping of agricultural fields (a total of 225 and
520 ha in Diohine-Sassem and Sob, respectively) was established in the
region by a previous study (Odru, 2013). Practices vary particularly in
terms of organic inputs. Soil fertility within the village landscape is
organized in halos (e.g., Manlay et al., 2004; Ramisch, 2005) with fields
close to habitations, called “home-field” (0.2–2 km from the conces­
sions), receiving regular and high organic inputs (4–20 Mg dry matter
(DM) ha-1 yr-1), and fields distant from habitations called “out-field”
receiving irregular and low organic inputs <4 Mg DM ha-1 yr-1)
(Tounkara et al., 2020). The sampling design is not based on an exper­
imental trial but on existing farmer fields selected in real situations;
O.P. Malou et al.
thus, we use the term “situation” rather than “treatment” in the present
study. The farmer field areas vary from 0.02 to 5.24 ha, with an average
size of 0.6 ha. The sampling design aimed to maximize a wide range of
situations in terms of organic inputs representative of what the farmers
apply to their fields. Local smallholders do not usually record a precise
history of their quantitative organic inputs, although they gave us
enough information on management the year before sampling to draw
categories of fields and related organic amendments (Malou et al.,
2021). The number of samples considered in this study and the number
of situations cover a much wider range of situations than would be
possible with an experimental trial but did not allow us to finely
consider the amount of C applied to soils.
2.2. Selection of cultivated situations
Sampling fields were not experimental but cultivated by farmers. The
soil was manually prepared before sowing and rarely plowed, as most
farmers do not have their own draft animals. Sowing was performed dry
before the beginning of the rainy season to give the crop the advantage
over germinating annual weeds. Hand hoeing was performed at the soil
surface for subsequent weed control. Fields were selected to be repre­
sentative of the most common practices regarding organic amendments
in the region (Malou et al., 2021). Information obtained from farmers on
management practices the year before sampling allowed us to draw
categories of fields and types of organic inputs, which are presented in
Table 1. Briefly, organic inputs consisted of (i) manure (n = 40)
composed of uneaten plant residues, ruminant feces and urine; (ii)
organic wastes (n = 10) composed of household wastes, ash and crop
residues; and (iii) millet residues left in the field after harvest (n = 10).
We also selected cultivated fields with no exogenous organic inputs in
the previous years or just after an annual fallow (No-input; n = 60). In
situations with manure or organic wastes, organic inputs were applied to
the soil surface just before the start of the rainy season (approximately
May–June). Manure and household organic waste amounts applied the
year before sampling were not precisely known. Amounts and quality of
the organic amendment may vary from one year to another while
home-fields (i.e., fields close to habitations) are more regularly amended
than out-fields (Tounkara et al., 2020). Manure was applied at a rate of
0.1–12.8 Mg DM ha− 1 yr− 1 to home-fields and 0.1–3.8 Mg DM ha− 1 yr− 1
to out-fields. Household organic wastes were only applied to home-fields
at 0.1–18.3 Mg DM ha− 1 (Malou et al., 2021). Soil samples were
collected during the rainy season (cropping season) or the dry season
(outside the cropping cycle) (Table 1) for practical reasons and were not
intended to study the seasonal variability of SOC contents or C pools.
3. Methods
3.1. Soil sampling
Samples were manually collected with an auger at two soil depths
(0–10 and 10–30 cm). For each layer, in each field, a composite sample
was prepared by mixing five separate samples taken at the center and
Table 1
Description of the studied soil sample set (N = 120) selected among the ca 1800 cultivated plots composing the agricultural mapping of the area (Malou et al., 2020).
Situations Total number of sample (N) Place of collection
Home-fields
(n)
No input 60 20
+Millet residues 10 – 10
+Manure 40 20
+Organic wastes 10 10
The plus (+) sign means that the situation was collected in the existing 1800 samples set and selected in the studied set as representative of the agriculture systems; The
minus (− ) sign means that the situation considered as uncommon wasn’t collected in the existing 1800 sample set; n.a., non applicable, refers to situations that do not
exist in the agricultural systems of the studied area.
Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978
corners of a 1-m square located at the field centroid. The soil samples
were air-dried and sieved at 2 mm before analysis. Several aliquots of
each composite sample were used to measure SOC, texture, Therm-C,
POM-C and FF-C, POX-C, and Min-C.
3.2. Soil analyses
3.2.1. Soil organic carbon
The SOC content was determined in 100 mg of finely ground soil
(<200 μm) aliquots. These aliquots were analyzed by dry combustion
(ISO 10694:1995) using a CHN elemental analyzer (Thermo Finnigan
Flash EA1112, Milan, Italy).
3.2.2. Soil texture
The soil texture was determined after SOM removal with hydrogen
peroxide, further dispersion with sodium hexametaphosphate, and
sieving at 200, 50 and 20 μm. Separation of the finest fractions used a
Robinson pipette (ISO 11277:2020). The results are presented for two
soil texture fractions, namely, the silt + clay fraction (0–50 μm) and the
sand fraction (50–2000 μm).
3.2.3. Rock-Eval® thermal analysis
Rock-Eval® thermal analysis was used to identify different thermal
pools of SOC (Disnar et al., 2003; Lafargue et al., 1998). The analytical
protocol consisted of analyzing soil samples (<200 μm, mass = 55–73
mg) in two phases: (i) pyrolysis by heating from 200 ◦ C to 650 ◦ C at
25 ◦ C min− 1 in an inert atmosphere (N2) and (ii) oxidation of residual
carbon in an artificial atmosphere (N2/O2: 80/20), starting at 400 ◦ C and
ending at 850 ◦ C with a heating rate of 20 ◦ C min− 1 (Lafargue et al.,
1998). In this study, we propose a parameter deduced from results found
in Malou et al. (2020) and we named it “Therm-C”. Therm-C corre­
sponds to SOC pyrolyzed between 200 and 520 ◦ C and emitted as hy­
drocarbons, CO and CO2. We considered that Therm-C corresponds to a
labile SOC pool since Malou et al. (2020) showed that thermally labile
(200–400 ◦ C) and even resistant (400–520 ◦ C) pyrolizable hydrocarbon
pools are sensitive to mineralization in these sandy soils.
3.2.4. Particle-size fractionation of SOM
Particle-size fractionation separates soil into two SOC size fractions,
POM-C and FF-C, with different turnovers. These two fractions provide
insight into the stabilization and decomposition processes of SOC. Par­
ticulate organic matter (POM; organic fractions >50 μm) was separated
from the organic matter associated with the finest particles (FF; fine
fractions <50 μm) according to the method described by Balesdent et al.
(1998). It is a physical granulometric fractionation of soil organic matter
with a maximum dispersion of soil particles. Briefly, 30 g of soil (<2
mm) was agitated in a 500-ml flask with 100 ml of sodium hexameta­
phosphate solution (5 g L− 1) for 16 h on a shaker at a frequency of 110
oscillations back and forth. The suspension was then sieved at 50 μm.
Soil fractions >50 μm were separated into light and heavy fractions by
flotation in water. The light fractions >50 μm corresponded to POM. The
heavy fraction >50 μm corresponded to mineral sands. All fractions
Plot Management Time of collection
Out-fields Annual Fallow Under cultivation Cropping season Off crop cycle
(n)
40 + + + +
n.a. + + –
20 n.a. + + +
n.a. n.a. + – +
3
O.P. Malou et al.
>50 μm were dried at 50 ◦ C and finely ground (<200 μm) for analysis.
The suspension that passed through the sieve, i.e., fractions <50 μm,
contained FF. FF fractions were dried at 50 ◦ C and finely ground (<200
μm; for homogenization before analysis). The carbon contents of all
fractions were determined with a CHN elemental analyzer. The C con­
tent of the mineral fraction >50 μm (sand) isolated from the POM was
less than 0.6 g C kg− 1 and thus considered negligible. We checked that
the sum of the SOC contents of the 2 other fractions (POM-C + FF-C)
matched the SOC content in the bulk soil, i.e., in the unfractionated
sample. The recovery average was 98 ± 3%.
3.2.5. Permanganate-oxidizable carbon
POX-C is an indicator of SOC sensitivity to mineralization or so-
called “active C′′ and an indicator to track SOM dynamics. Determina­
tion of permanganate-oxidizable C (POX-C) was performed according to
the method of Weil et al. (2003) modified by Culman et al. (2012).
Detailed protocols can also be found in several studies (Awale et al.,
2017; Hurisso et al., 2016). Briefly, 2.5 g of air-dried soil (<2 mm) was
mixed in a 50 ml polypropylene centrifuge tube with 20 ml of KMnO4
solution (0.02 mol L− 1) for 2 min using a rotary shaker. Then, after
allowing the suspension to settle for 10 min, 0.5 ml of the supernatant
was transferred to a second centrifuge tube and mixed with 49.5 ml
deionized water. The absorbance of the sample was determined at 550
nm using a spectrophotometer (SpectroVis® Plus, Vernier, OR, USA).
The POX-C (mg C kg− 1 soil) was calculated as follows:
POX − C = [0.02 − (a + b ∗ Absorbance)] ∗ (9000)
∗ (0.02 solution / 0.0025 soil)
where 0.02 is the concentration of the initial KMnO4 solution expressed
in mol L− 1; a is the intersection and b is the slope of the standard curve;
9000 is the amount of C, expressed in mg, oxidized per 1 mol of MnO4
changing Mn7+ to Mn4+; 0.02 solution is the volume of KMnO4 solution
reacted, expressed in L; and 0.0025 is the mass of soil, expressed in kg,
used in the reaction.
3.2.6. Mineralizable carbon
Heterotrophic microbial respiration, also known as basal soil respi­
ration, was measured to estimate the size of the mineralizable C pool in
the soil (Min-C) (Franzluebbers et al., 2000). Min-C also provides in­
sights into the ability of heterotrophic microorganisms to release
essential nutrients to plants. Briefly, 10 g of air-dried soil (with three
replicates per sample) was placed in 120 ml airtight vials, and soil
moisture was maintained (with deionized water) at 80% of the soil’s
water-holding capacity. The carbon dioxide produced by mineralization
and accumulated in the vial was measured every day during a 28-day
incubation period (at 28 ◦ C and in darkness) using a micro gas chro­
matograph (Varian micro gas CP4900, Varian Chromatography Group,
CA, USA). The samples were flushed to renew the air in the incubation
vials between gaseous samplings. The amount of cumulated CO2 emis­
sions after the 28-day incubation period and expressed as mg C–CO2
kg− 1 soil represented the mineralizable C pool (Min-C).
3.3. Data analysis
R software (R Core Team, 2021) was used for all statistical analyses.
Statistical analyses, especially analysis of variance and random forest
modeling, were performed per soil depth (0–10 cm and 10–30 cm
separately) in the different situations. Data were checked for normality
(Shapiro test) and homogeneity of variance (Bartlett test). Analysis of
variance (ANOVA) with post hoc pairwise Tukey’s HSD with a proba­
bility level of 0.05 comparisons was used to compare the different input
situations (i.e., last year presence or absence of the 3 types of organic
inputs) and the two field locations (home-fields or out-fields). The time
of sampling was not considered as a category for comparison of C pools.
The random forest (RF) algorithm (Breiman, 2001) was used to
4
Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978
assess the importance of different explanatory factors (or “predictors”)
on a given variable by adding randomness to the choice of variables in
the regression models. It was applied to the total SOC content (SOC) and
C pool content (Therm-C; POM-C; FF-C; POX-C; and Min-C) in the sur­
face (0–10 cm) and deep (10–30 cm) layers. RF is a learning machine
classification method that builds a multitude of decision trees by
randomly dividing the dataset (bagging). Contrary to linear regression, a
random forest analysis can handle nonlinearities and allows the defini­
tion of continuous and categorical variables for predictors. We used the
RandomForest (Version 4.6–14; years: 2018) function of R software with
error estimation by the out-of-bag procedure with 3 predictors (silt +
clay content; field location; and organic inputs) to explain SOC,
Therm-C, POM-C, FF-C, POX-C, and Min-C. A random effect ANOVA was
used with these 3 factors in the construction of the model. We also
attempted adding the time of sampling as a fourth predictor but did not
finally keep it in the RF analysis considering that the sampling design
was not fully appropriate for the purpose. However, the exploratory
results of this trial were provided as electronic supplementary material.
The performance of the global RF regression models was evaluated
through the percentage increase of the root mean square error, which
allows us to know by how much the error would increase if the predictor
was completely random; in other words, it prefigures the loss of preci­
sion of the model if the predictor is not considered to estimate the var­
iable. Thus, high values of error gain (%) indicate greater explanatory
factors in the RF model.
Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to detect linear
relationships between parameters derived from four methodological
approaches: thermal (Therm-C), physical (POM-C), chemical (POX-C)
and biological (Min-C) using the FactoExtra package Version 1.0.6
(Kassambara and Mundt, 2020). FF-C was not considered in the con­
struction of the PCA because it is the counterpart of POM-C. We also
used multiple linear regression (MLR) to model the relationship between
Min-C and POM-C. Therm-C and POX-C were used as explanatory var­
iables according to the different input types. For each model, the
adjusted R2 and root mean squared error (RMSE) were recorded.
4. Results
4.1. SOC content and C pools
4.1.1. Organic inputs impacted SOC contents and stability
For the 0–10 cm soil layer, the average SOC content was 5.7 ± 0.4 g C
kg-1 in all situations considered (n = 120; ESM 1). The C content of
particulate organic matter (POM-C) averaged 2.6 ± 0.3 g C kg-1 soil,
which represented ca. 46% of the SOC in the 0–10 cm layer. The C
content of the fine soil fractions (FF–C) (3.2 ± 0.2 g C kg-1 C soil) rep­
resented 56% of the SOC in the 0–10 cm layer (ESM 1). The thermal C
pool (Therm-C), permanganate-oxidizable carbon (POX-C), and miner­
alizable C (Min-C) represented a small part of the SOC, approximately
10.5% for Therm-C, 4.5% for POX-C, and 0.2% for Min-C. Therm-C,
POX-C and Min-C had average values of 0.6 ± 0.1 g C kg-1 soil, 254 ±
14 mg C kg-1 soil, and 10.7 ± 1.2 mg C–CO2 kg-1 soil, respectively.
Thus, POM-C represented a fraction of SOC that was at least 4 times
more important than Therm-C in the 0–10 cm soil layer. Compared to
No-input, a positive effect of +organic waste was significant (p < 0.001)
for each pool (Fig. 1). However, the other two amendments (+Millet
residues and +Manure) did not affect the measured C pools, except
Therm-C for + Manure.
In the 10–30 cm soil layer, SOC had a mean value of 3.4 ± 0.2 g C kg-
1 soil (n = 120; ESM 1). Overall, all soil C pools decreased significantly
(p < 0.05) with soil depth, with the exception of the FF-C pools in the
No-input or + Millet residue situations (Fig. 1d). POM-C (0.8 ± 0.1 g C
kg-1 soil) and FF-C (2.6 ± 0.2 g C kg-1 soil) accounted for 24 and 76% of
SOC, respectively, when considering all situations together at this soil
depth. As at the soil surface, Therm-C, POX-C, and Min-C represented a
small part of SOC, approximately 5.0% for Therm-C, 3.9% for POX-C,
O.P. Malou et al. Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978

Fig. 1. Carbon concentration in bulk soil (a) and in the different pools, i.e. for Therm-C (b), POM-C (c), FF-C (d), POX-C (e) and Min-C (f), for both soil layers, 0–10
cm (in white) and 10–30 cm (in grey). Upper and lower letters marked significant difference (p < 0.05) between organic input situations in the 0–10 cm soil layer and in the
10–30 cm soil layer respectively. The asterisk pointed to the comparison between 0-10 and 10–30 cm in each organic input situation (ns: p > 0.5; *: p < 0.05; **: p < 0.01 and
***p < 0.001).

5
O.P. Malou et al.
and 0.1% for Min-C. Therm-C, POX-C, and Min-C had average values of
0.17 ± 0.02 g C kg-1 soil, 133 ± 11 mg C kg-1 soil, and 3.4 ± 0.3 mg
C–CO2 kg-1 soil, respectively. Thus POM-C represented a fraction of
SOC that was at least 4 times more important than Therm-C in the
10–30 cm soil layer. The effect of organic inputs on the SOC and soil C
pools was still noticeable at this depth, except for Therm-C and FF-C (in
which the probability level for significance was 0.07; Fig. 1bd). How­
ever, this effect was less clear than that in the 0–10 cm soil layer. The
SOC contents at 10–30 cm depth decreased in the following order:
+Organic wastes ≥ +Manure ≥ +Millet residues = No-input (Fig. 1a).
POM-C, POX-C and Min-C values were significantly higher in the
+Organic waste situations than in other situations, while no difference
was observed between the other three situations (Fig. 1c, e and f).
6
Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978
4.1.2. Field location impacted SOC contents and C pools
The SOC contents were higher in the home-fields than in the out-
fields in the 0–10 cm soil layer with 7.8 vs. 4.5 g C kg− 1 soil and in
the 10–30 cm soil layer with 4.2 vs. 2.8 g C kg− 1 soil, respectively
(Fig. 2a; Table S1). Similar trends were observed for POM-C, FF-C, POX-
C and Min-C between the two field locations regardless of sampling
depth (Fig. 2c, d, e, f). Therm-C was also much higher in the home-field
than in the out-fields at 0–10 cm but not at 10–30 cm (Fig. 2b). Using the
data in Table S1, the contribution of each pool to SOC could be calcu­
lated (data not shown). The contribution of POM to SOC was higher in
the home-fields than in the out-fields at both depths (47 vs. 40% at 0–10
cm and 29 vs. 21% at 10–30 cm, respectively). The contribution of
Therm-C was also higher in home-fields than in out-fields except in the
10–30 cm soil layer (11.4 vs. 8.9% at 0–10 cm and 5.0 vs. 5.4% at 10–30
Fig. 2. Carbon concentration in soil and in the
different C pools in both soil layers (0–10 cm and
10–30 cm) for the field location: (a) SOC, (b) Therm-
C, (c) POM-C, (d) FF-C, (e) POX-C and (f) Min-C.
Upper and lower letters correspond to the compari­
son in the 0–10 cm soil layer and in the 10–30 cm soil
layer respectively in the different situations. The
asterix correspond to the comparison between 0-10 and
10–30 cm in each situation (ns: p > 0.5; *: p < 0.05; **:
p < 0.01. p < 0.001 and ***: p < 0.0001.
O.P. Malou et al.
cm, respectively). The contribution of Min-C to SOC remained small at
both depths. Surprisingly, the contribution of POX-C to SOC was slightly
higher in out-fields than in home-fields (4.9 vs. 3.8% at 0–10 cm and 4.1
vs. 3.8% at 10–30 cm, respectively).
4.2. Explaining factors of SOC content and C pools
Fig. 3 illustrates for both soil layers the order of importance of the
predictors for SOC and soil C pools obtained by the random forest
approach using three predictors (silt + clay content; field location; and
organic inputs).
For the 0–10 cm soil layer, the RF model explained 30, 30, 31, 24, 17
and 16% of the explained variance for SOC, Therm-C, POM-C, FF-C,
POX-C and Min-C, respectively. The type of organic inputs and field
location were the best explanatory factors for SOC, Therm-C, POM-C, FF-
C and Min-C (Fig. 3A). Soil texture did not appear to be an important
explanatory factor for the SOC and C pools in the surface layer. It could
be noted that if included in the RF analysis as a fourth predicator, the
time of soil sampling, i.e., off-crop season and cropping season, could
serve as an explanatory factor but only for the variability of POX-C (ESM
3).
In the 10–30 cm layer, the increase in error was less, indicating that
the considered factors were less determinant for the models when soil
depth increased (Fig. 3B). The percentages of variance explained by the
three factors considered were lower, i.e., 17, 8, 11, 19, 12 and 3% for
SOC, Therm-C, POM-C, FF-C, POX-C and Min-C, respectively. The type
of organic inputs and field location remained key explanatory factors,
especially for POM and POX-C, while the soil texture was not different
between the two soil depths (p = 0.05; ESM 2). However, in contrast to
the 0–10 cm soil texture, the 10–30 cm soil texture was a key factor in
explaining SOC, Therm-C, FF-C and Min-C (Fig. 3B).
4.3. Relations between C pools measured by different approaches
Fig. 4 illustrates the variability of the C data related to the notion of
the biogeochemical stability of SOC determined by physical (POM-C),
chemical (POX-C), biological (Min-C) and thermal (Therm-C) ap­
proaches. This variability was particularly high for soil surface samples.
Principal Component 1 (PC1) explained 86% of the variance in the
biogeochemical stability of SOC. PC1 was explained by the four pa­
rameters, and POM-C and Therm-C were highly correlated along this
axis. POM-C and Therm-C seemed to represent comparable biogeo­
chemical stability properties of SOM, even if these two pools were not
identical. POM-C accounted for approximately 46 and 24% of the SOC in
the 0–10 and 10–30 cm soil layers, respectively, while Therm-C
accounted for only 10 and 5% in these two soil layers, respectively.
Principal Component 2 (PC2) explained 10% of the variance in the
stability of SOC and was explained exclusively by POX-C and Min-C,
which were orthogonal and not correlated. This indicates that POX-C
and Min-C did not correspond to the same fraction of SOC. The pools
identified as POX-C and Min-C were not of the same biogeochemical
nature. The contributions of POX-C and Min-C to PC1 were also signif­
icant. The PC1 axis aggregated all variables, which had characterized
different labile forms of SOC. The physical, chemical, biological and
thermal approaches were complementary, especially for Min-C and
POX-C.
4.4. Regression models for estimating mineralizable carbon
The Min-C pool was significantly (p < 0.0001) correlated with the
Therm-C and POM-C pools. The quality of these relationships differed
according to the situations with particularly high adjusted R2 values
(>0.9) in +Millet residues and in +Organic wastes situations and to a
lesser extent in +Manure (0.67 > adjusted R2 > 0.56) (Table 2). In No-
input situations, the relationships were weaker with R2 values below
0.35 (Table 2). The addition of POX-C in the linear relationship with
7
Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978
Therm-C or POM-C did not improve the prediction of Min-C in any sit­
uation (p > 0.05). The POM-C and Therm-C pools were strongly corre­
lated (R2 = 0.93 in +Organic wastes, R2 = 0.99 in +Millet residues, R2 =
0.89 in +Manure and R2 = 0.85 in No-input). The association of POM-C
and Therm-C in a multiple linear relationship did not improve the
explanation of Min-C compared to a linear relationship between either
POM-C or Therm-C and Min-C. These 2 pools, Therm-C and POM-C,
seemed to be redundant in their relationship with Min-C and
explained it to a similar extent for a given input situation. The regression
model based on Therm-C estimated Min-C very similarly to those based
on POM-C in the +Millet residues and in +Organic wastes situations
(adjusted R2: 0.96 vs. 0.95; RMSE: 0.8 vs. 0.9 mg C kg− 1 soil in +Millet
residues and adjusted R2: 0.93 vs. 0.90; RMSE: 4.9 vs. 5.9 mg C kg− 1 soil
in +Organic wastes). POM-C slightly outperformed Therm-C as an
explanatory variable of Min-C in the +Manure and No-input situations
(adjusted R2: 0.67 vs. 0.56; RMSE: 3.1 vs. 3.6 mg C kg− 1 soil and
adjusted R2: 0.35 vs. 0.27 RMSE: 3.3 vs. 3.5 mg C kg− 1 soil, respec­
tively). The results also revealed a positive weak relationship between
Min-C and FF-C in home-field and +organic waste situations (R2 =
0.24–0.26) but not in out-field or No-input situations (data not shown).
5. Discussion
5.1. Range of SOC contents in the agricultural landscape
The SOC contents of this central zone in Senegal average 5.7 ± 0.4 g
C kg-1 soil in the topsoil. Such low values have been reported in
numerous studies on sandy soils in arid and semiarid zones (Fujisaki
et al., 2018a; Yost and Hartemink, 2019). The range of observed SOC
contents is, however, very wide, from 4.5 to 12 g C kg-1 (in the 0–10 cm
soil layer). Similar ranges have been reported in Mali, with SOC contents
between 1 and 10 g C kg-1 at a 0–20 cm depth (Doumbia et al., 2008),
and in Niger, with SOC contents between 1 and 8 g C kg-1 in the topsoil
(Bationo and Buerkert, 2001). The SOC contents in the landscape
depend on the location of fields and the inputs they have received, with
higher SOC levels in home-fields than in out-fields (7.8 g C kg-1 ± 0.8
versus 4.5 ± 0.3 g C kg-1 in the present study, respectively) (Fig. 2). This
trend is often underlined in West Africa (Bationo et al., 2007; Tounkara
et al., 2020) and East Africa (Tittonell et al., 2013). The home-fields
receive regular organic inputs, of 4–20 Mg DM ha-1 yr-1 compared
with less than 4 Mg ha-1 yr-1 in general for an out-field (Tounkara et al.,
2020). Home-fields are also the only fields amended with household
organic wastes of various qualities (Manlay et al., 2004). The distribu­
tion of SOC contents in the study site is representative of sub-Saharan
agrosystems.
5.2. C pool distribution in the agricultural landscape
The distribution of all C pools illustrates once again the spatial or­
ganization of SOC in “soil fertility halos” from the village center (e.g.,
Manlay et al., 2004; Tittonell et al., 2013) (Fig. 2). Organic amendments,
particularly in home-fields, feed all C pools, especially POM-C, Therm-C
and Min-C. Soil organic matter in home-field soils is mostly particulate
(Fig. 2; Eusterhues et al., 2003; Feller and Beare 1997). Increasing this
pool of C probably contributes to improved soil fertility and crop yields
(Wood et al., 2016). The large increase in the pool of soil mineralizable C
(Fig. 2f) also indicates a greater recycling of nutrients essential for plant
growth in the home-field than in the out-field. The large increase in
Min-C following organic waste inputs in home-fields reflects the rapid
rate of renewal of these materials and the importance of maintaining C
inputs through regular inputs. This high mineralization and the high
variability of Min-C measured in +organic waste situations could be
related to the high amounts and to the complex nature of these organic
inputs, which contain household wastes but also ashes and N-containing
excreta from farm animals (Malou et al., 2021). Contrary to millet res­
idue situations (C/N ratio = 46.5; van Duivenbooden and Cisée, 1989),
O.P. Malou et al. Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978

Fig. 3. Ranking of the importance of factors for predicting SOC (a), Therm-C (b), POM-C (c), FF-C (d), POX-C (e) and Min-C (f) in the 0–10 cm (A; left column) and
10–30 cm (B; right column) soil layers, as expressed by the increase in root mean square error (%IncMSE) in the Random Forest regression models.

8
O.P. Malou et al.
Fig. 4. Biplot of a principal components analysis (PCA) showing the loadings of
the 4 parameters (arrows) and the 120 soil samples derived from different input
situations and the two layers (0–10 cm and 10–30 cm, n = 60 each) within the
plane defined by the first two principal component axes (PC1 and PC2).
the decomposition and mineralization of the organic waste inputs were
probably less limited by mineral N deficiency in the amended soil. Our
results reflect the increase in fertility observed by farmers in fields close
to habitations. Indeed, differences in millet yields are observed between
the two field locations in the study area: 1.8 Mg grains ha− 1 in
home-fields that receive between 18 and 20 Mg ha− 1 of manure versus
0.4 Mg grains ha− 1 in out-fields that do not receive organic amendments
(Tounkara et al., 2020).
Our work corroborates the results of studies on the fertility gradient
that exist between home-fields and out-fields (e.g., Tittonell et al., 2013)
in showing that regular inputs feed all C pools. This justifies the way
local farmers manage scarce organic resources. In this region, farmers
have limited resources for production and few means for manure
transportation. They concentrate the available organic resources
(manure and organic wastes) in the home-fields on a regular and often
repeated basis to secure and optimize agricultural yields (Misiko et al.,
2011) to the detriment of out-fields that generally receive very little
exogenous organic inputs (mostly manure) and therefore have lower
SOC and labile or stable C pools.
5.3. Organic management explained the C distribution in the landscape
The type of organic inputs applied to the soil in the year before soil
collection was the most important factor explaining the SOC and labile C
pools (Fig. 3). In this study, only soil amendment practices with
household organic wastes practices restricted to home-fields could
significantly increase SOC contents and the C pools up to 30 cm deep in
these sandy soils (Fig. 1). Even when practiced, the amount of amend­
ments is highly variable in space and time. Manure amendments
generally represent a carbon input from 0.02 to 3.2 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 and
organic wastes one of 0.02–3.8 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 (Malou et al., 2021). This
high variability in the amount of organic inputs, which are also usually
applied by hand at the soil surface without incorporation into the soil
9
Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978
can explain the slight impact of organic inputs on SOC and C pools. The
intense mineralization in the Sahelian context could also explain these
results (Bernhard-Reversat, 1981; Yemadje et al., 2017). However, the
nonsignificant effect of manure on C pools is very unexpected (Fig. 1).
Some studies on other soils and climates have shown that manure
application is an effective means to increase SOC contents (Fujisaki
et al., 2018a) and C pools, such as the FF-C (Benbi et al., 2015; Hoover
et al., 2019), POX-C (Benbi et al., 2015; Qi et al., 2016), or recalcitrant C
pool (Benbi et al., 2015). The absence of a significant effect of manure
might be overcome by a seasonal effect or linked to applied amounts.
Unfortunately, our sampling design does not allow exploring the effect
of input amounts. The 40 situations called “manure” were fields
receiving manure in the year before sampling. Contrary to the 10 situ­
ations called “organic wastes”, all located in home-fields, the 40 manure
situations were much more diverse in terms of location (home-fields and
out-fields) and probably in input amount and frequency. In our study,
relying only on the last annual inputs prior to sampling is not sufficient
to highlight the effects of all organic amendments on the C pools, except
for Therm-C (Fig. 1b). Therm-C is an indicator sufficiently sensitive to
account for the effect of organic inputs in the previous year and can
serve as a useful early indicator of SOC dynamics in these soils. The
difficulty of highlighting the organic input effect on SOC or C pools can
also be explained by a strong temporal variability of organic inputs in
the fields and the application at the soil surface without incorporation.
Only the home-fields regularly receive organic inputs. The out-fields are
less regularly amended, but they sometimes receive manure, less than 4
Mg dry weight ha− 1. Indeed, some farmers sometimes decide to manage
an out-field as they would consider for a home-field by bringing larger
amounts of organic amendments. The amendment depends on the
availability of the organic resources, the means to transport it, the
farmer’s time availability, the farm-level strategy for amending a given
field in a given year, or even the issue of land tenure (Misiko et al., 2011;
Vanlauwe et al., 2015; Stewart et al., 2020). Thus, the organic contri­
bution of the previous year alone does not explain the organic status of
the soils, especially in environments where SOC mineralization is
intense (Malou et al., 2020). The combination of organic inputs applied
the year before sampling and the field location explained most SOC and
C pool variations in the landscape. Soil amendment of fields close to
villages and favored by farmers with organic wastes is the only practice
in terms of quantity, quality and regularity that is conducive to sus­
tainably affecting SOC. These repeated inputs of C compounds (house­
hold wastes, ashes, excreta, etc.) increase the SOC contents and all C
pools, whether labile C pools (POM-C, POX-C) (Janzen et al., 1992;
Steffens et al., 2009) or more resistant C pools such as C associated with
fine mineral particles (FF–C) (Chen et al., 2019). Our results confirm
that soil C inputs are essential for maintaining or even increasing C
contents in tropical sandy soils (Fujisaki et al., 2018a) in all C pools and
not only in POM-C (Fujisaki et al., 2018b). The soil texture, always sandy
even if slightly variable in the landscape, may explain the distribution of
SOC and C pools but to a lesser extent.
The particular distribution of organic inputs and the intense miner­
alization of SOC explain the variability of all C pools in Sahelian land­
scapes. Our sampling strategy does not allow us to properly study
seasonal effects that may affect C pools, while soil organic matter
mineralization is well-known to be sensitive to soil temperature and
moisture especially in semiarid conditions (e.g., Hamdi et al., 2011;
Maia et al., 2019; Yemadje et al., 2017).
5.4. Measurement of biogeochemical stability
The different proxies of the stability of SOC did not measure the same
fraction of SOC. These proxies (Therm-C, POM-C, FF-C, POX-C and Min-
C) represented 0.2% to 46% of SOC in the 0–10 cm soil layer and were
correlated (e.g., POM-C and Therm-C) or not (e.g., Min-C and POX-C).
Correlations between Min-C, POM-C and Therm-C were surprisingly
different depending on the input situations. Min-C seems to be explained
O.P. Malou et al. Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978

Table 2
The results of stepwise multiple regression for dependent variable Min-C explained by POX-C and POM-C and by POX-C and Therm-C in situations with No-input,
+Millet residues, +Manure, and +Organic wastes.
Situations Values Standard error Student’s t Significance level p R2 Adjusted R2 RMSE

No-input Model < 0.0001 0.38 0.35 3.3

Intercept 2.32 0.89 2.60 0.01
POX-C 0.00 0.01 − 0.29 0.77
POM-C 2.87 0.67 4.30 0.0001

Model < 0.0001 0.30 0.27 3.5

Intercept 2.72 0.96 2.83 0.01
POX-C 0.00 0.01 0.46 0.65
Therm-C 9.31 2.97 3.13 0.003

+Millet residues Model < 0.0001 0.96 0.95 0.9

Intercept 0.36 0.77 0.47 0.65
POX-C 0.02 0.01 2.04 0.08
POM-C 1.08 0.75 1.44 0.19

Model < 0.0001 0.97 0.96 0.8

Intercept 0.12 0.57 0.22 0.83
POX-C 0.02 0.01 1.26 0.25
Therm-C 7.14 3.50 2.04 0.08

+Manure Model < 0.0001 0.68 0.67 3.1

Intercept 2.54 1.09 2.33 0.03
POX-C − 0.01 0.01 − 0.61 0.55
POM-C 3.38 0.86 3.94 0.0004

Model < 0.0001 0.58 0.56 3.6

Intercept 1.71 1.29 1.33 0.19
POX-C 0.02 0.01 1.55 0.13
Therm-C 4.79 2.85 1.68 0.10

+Organic wastes Model < 0.0001 0.93 0.90 5.9

Intercept − 3.01 5.32 − 0.57 0.59
POX-C − 0.01 0.02 − 0.48 0.65
POM-C 5.35 0.81 6.62 0.0003

Model < 0.0001 0.95 0.93 4.9

Intercept − 2.24 4.48 − 0.50 0.63
POX-C 0.00 0.02 0.00 1.00
Therm-C 19.49 2.42 8.07 0.0001

by comparable SOC properties measured by either POM-C or Therm-C,
especially in the +Organic waste and +Millet residue situations
(adjusted R2 > 0.90) but also in +manure (0.67 > adjusted R2 > 0.56).
Millet residues and organic wastes supply POM-C pool with plant debris
that are easily decomposable and mineralizable. The strong relationship
between Min-C and Therm-C in +Millet residues and in +Organic wastes
highlights the intense mineralization of SOC in these Arenosols, since
calculation of Therm-C includes C pools assumed to be resistant (or
stable) in other pedoclimatic contexts (as pyrolyzed C between 400 and
520 ◦ C). The quality of the POM-C pool fed by manure inputs may vary
according to the conditions of handling and storage impacting C and
nutrient retention in the manure before its application to soil (Tittonell
et al., 2010). In the manure situation, Min-C could also be partly
explained by factors that were not considered either in Therm-C, POM-C
or POX-C and were not explanatory in the other input situations. Urine
and N-containing animal excreta concomitant with manure inputs could
have a role in SOC mineralization without impacting these three C pools
(Cao et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2014). However, this role was weak since
Min-C was not significantly higher in the +Manure situation than in the
other input situations. In No input situations, Min-C was poorly
explained by POM-C or Therm-C (adjusted R2 < 0.35) and not by FF-C. A
positive weak relationship between Min-C and FF-C in home-fields was
noticed. This is surprising as the FF-C pool is considered to have little or
no contribution to soil fertility and acts as a C sink (Wood et al., 2016).
However, several studies have reported destabilization of FF-C pools
(Jilling et al., 2018) and contributions from both plant and microbial
residues in the fine fraction (Poeplau et al., 2018; Angst et al., 2021; Yu
et al., 2022). Destabilization of FF-C is possible since a large part of the
mineralization of N in Sahelian soils has incidentally been measured
from the organo-mineral fractions, representing up to 60–80% of the
production of mineral N (Bernhard-Reversat, 1981). POM fragments
smaller than 50 μm may end up in the FF during the fractionation pro­
cess and contribute to mineralization. Our results mainly indicate that
the size of the pool of labile C in the No-input situations is very small and
difficult to model with a proxy. In the absence of C inputs to these sandy
soils, heterotrophic soil microorganisms have nothing to consume.
These results support the results of the meta-analysis by Fujisaki et al.
(2018b) but also by Malou et al. (2021) in which regular organic inputs
are the most important lever to maintain or increase C stocks in these
C-poor sandy soils.
In these sandy soils, POM-C is strongly correlated with Therm-C,
which is defined as the pyrolyzed part of the thermolabile SOC pool.
This is a different result from that of Saenger et al. (2015), who observed
a poor correlation between POM and a thermolabile C pool. Regardless
of the contrasting pedoclimatic contexts, this discrepancy can be
explained by the way the thermolabile pool is calculated. Indeed,
Saenger et al. (2015) deduced a labile pool of SOC from the analysis of
hydrocarbons released during pyrolysis only, whereas we calculated the
thermolabile part of the pyrolyzed C from all carbonaceous effluents
(hydrocarbons, CO and CO2). Therm-C does not exactly correspond to
the labile carbon pool depicted by the POM-C fraction, as Therm-C in the
studied Sahelian soils represents only ca. 10 and 5% of SOC in the 0–10
and 10–30 cm soil layers, respectively, in all situations, while POM-C
represents ca. 46% and 24%, respectively. Thus POM-C represents a
fraction of SOC at least 4 times larger than that of Therm-C. Contrary to
Therm-C, which is only defined from the pyrolyzed part of SOC, POM-C
encompasses pyrolyzable and oxidable forms that are also mineralizable
by soil microbial activity.
The proxies POX-C and Min-C do not measure the same C pool. If
POX-C was originally described as a labile C pool, the results of our study

10
O.P. Malou et al.
do not corroborate this description. The POX-C pool represents a C pool
based on its susceptibility to oxidation with weak potassium perman­
ganate (KMnO4) solution and thereby simulates microbial oxidation
(Weil et al., 2003) but also reflects a more stabilized fraction of SOC. The
enrichment of POX-C could thus suggest greater accumulation and sta­
bilization of SOM (Culman et al., 2012; Hurisso et al., 2016). POX-C is
probably a mix of various organic matter with different stabilities that
could explain the high variability of the measured POX-C (Fig. 1). In
sandy Sahelian soils with low C content, POX-C cannot be considered a
labile C pool, as the POX-C and Min-C proxies were orthogonal in the
principal component analysis (Fig. 4). Other recent studies (Romero
et al., 2018; Hurisso et al., 2016; Culman et al., 2012) did not validate
such a biogeochemical nature for POX-C either, i.e., a pool of active
and/or labile soil C. The regression model of Min-C by POX-C confirms
this result: Min-C was not related to POX-C regardless of the situation
studied (Table 2). This result clearly suggests that C mineralized by soil
microorganisms is not the same as that mineralized by chemical attack.
In our context, POX-C reflects the accumulation or stabilization of SOC,
while Min-C reflects SOC sensitivity to mineralization in agrosystems
(Hurisso et al., 2016). These results support the suggestion of Hurisso
et al. (2016) that the combined use of POX-C and Min-C “provides a
complementary framework for assessing the relative dynamics of soil
stabilization and nutrient mineralization functions in agroecosystems".
Finally, a combination of POX-C and Min-C seems to explain the
variance as much as Therm-C or POM-C does (Fig. 4). Therefore, to
measure the biogeochemical stability of SOM in sandy soils in the Sen­
egalese Groundnut Basin studies should either combine POX-C and Min-
C or use POM-C or Therm-C.
6. Conclusion
Although based on on-farm situations with general information on
field management, this study showed that in cultivated Arenosols in the
Senegalese Groundnut Basin, cultivation practices based on soil organic
inputs, mostly in home-fields with household organic wastes, influence
SOC contents and their distribution in all soil C pools (POM-C, FF-C,
Min-C, POX-C, and Therm-C).
Methods used to separate labile from stable C pools are still debated.
Our results confirm that different approaches to SOC stability do not
measure the same fraction of SOC. Our results show that POX-C and Min-
C do not have the same biogeochemical nature and provide divergent
information on C stability. However, the combined use of these two C
pools could provide a good characterization of C stability in these C-poor
sandy soils. The alternative of characterizing C stability in these soils is
to use either POM-C or Therm-C pools, which provide similar informa­
tion on C stability in such semiarid environments. Since the fraction­
ation methods of SOM to obtain POM-C and the incubation method to
obtain Min-C are time-consuming and tedious compared with Rock-
Eval® thermal analysis, knowledge on the link between the thermal and
biogeochemical stability of SOC must be strengthened. However, our
results also confirm that the correlations between the different proxies
depend on input situations.
Further studies should include an experimental design with well-
defined modalities for organic inputs in terms of composition, applica­
tion amounts and frequency to deeply study the links between thermal
stability, biogeochemistry and turnover of SOC in such semiarid sandy
soils. They should also include an appropriate sampling scheme to
consider the possible seasonal effect on soil organic matter dynamics
and related proxies.
Funding
This work was mainly supported by the SoCa project (2017 Climate
initiative of the BNP Paribas foundation).
11
Journal of Arid Environments 213 (2023) 104978
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Oscar Pascal Malou: Conceptualization, Software, Investigation,
Methodology, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.
Tiphaine Chevallier: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing,
Software. Patricia Moulin: Writing – review & editing. David Sebag:
Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing. Murielle Nancy Rako­
tondrazafy: Lab analysis, experimental design. Ndeye Yacine Bad­
iane-Ndour: Writing – review & editing. Abou Thiam:
Conceptualization, Supervision. Lydie Chapuis-Lardy: Conceptualiza­
tion, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
The authors are unable or have chosen not to specify which data has
been used.
Acknowledgments
The authors are deeply grateful to Dominique Masse (IRD) and
Jonathan Vayssières (CIRAD), who provided useful information for field
selection from previous projects. The French National Research Institute
for Sustainable Development (IRD) granted a three-year doctoral
fellowship to Oscar Pascal Malou. Texture and CHN analyses were
determined by the ISO9001:2015 certified LAMA laboratory of Dakar
(UAR Imago, IRD, Senegal). POX-C was performed at the BSL-2 lab fa­
cilities of the UMR Eco&Sols in Montpellier (France), and soil frac­
tionation (POM) and soil respiration (Min-C) were performed at the joint
research laboratory IESOL in Dakar (Senegal). The authors deeply thank
the technical staff of these laboratories for their assistance.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2023.104978.
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Electronic Supplementary materials

ESM 1: Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation of mean) for SOC, Therm-C, POM-C, FF-C, POX-C, and Min-C depending on the situation, i.e. all, application of
organic inputs, or field location, and at soil depths of 0-10 cm and 10-30 cm.

SOC Therm-C POM-C FF-C POX-C Min-C

Situations (g C kg soil)
-1
(g C kg soil)
-1
(g C kg soil)
-1
(g C kg soil)
-1
(mg C kg soil)
-1
(mg C kg-1 soil)
0-10 10-30 0-10 10-30 0-10 10-30 0-10 10-30 0-10 10-30 0-10 10-30

All 5.7 3.4 0.6 0.17 2.6 0.8 3.2 2.6 254 133 10.7 3.4
(0.4) (0.2) (0.1) (0.02) (0.3) (0.1) (0.2) (0.2) (14) (11) (1.2) (0.3)

No-input 4.6 3.2 0.31 0.12 1.7 0.6 2.9 2.5 223 129 7.8 2.8
(0.4) (0.2) (0.05) (0.01) (0.2) (0.1) (0.2) (0.2) (18) (13) (0.8) (0.2)
+Millet residues 5.1 2.3 0.7 0.23 2.7 0.6 2.4 1.7 224 96 8.6 3.2
(1.2) (0.2) (0.2) (0.03) (0.8) (0.2) (0.4) (0.1) (52) (15) (2) (0.5)
+Manure 6.3 3.4 0.73 0.21 2.8 0.8 3.5 2.6 274 117 11.1 3.6
(0.6) (0.5) (0.1) (0.06) (0.3) (0.2) (0.3) (0.3) (22) (16) (1.1) (0.5)
+Organic wastes 12.2 5.6 1.73 0.31 7 1.9 5.3 3.7 388 254 29.2 6
(1.7) (1.1) (0.4) (0.12) (1.5) (0.6) (0.4) (0.5) (38) (66) (9.6) (2.3)

Home-field 7.8 4.2 0.89 0.21 3.7 1.2 3.9 3 299 158 14.8 4.4
(0.8) (0.5) (0.14) (0.05) (0.5) (0.2) (0.3) (0.3) (22) (20) (2.4) (0.6)
Out-field 4.5 2.8 0.4 0.15 1.8 0.6 2.7 2.3 221 114 7.9 2.7
(0.3) (0.2) (0.06) (0.01) (0.2) (0.05) (0.2) (0.2) (16) (11) (0.8) (0.2)
ESM 2 Soil texture (as determined using the standard pipette method after sieving and sedimentation; ISO 11277 : 2009) in the different situations and according to soil
layers. Values are means with standard deviations of mean in parentheses.

Soil textural fraction (%)

Situations Sand Silt+Clay Sand Silt+Clay
0-10 cm 10-30 cm
No-input 84.9 (0.9) 14.8 (0.9) 82.5 (1.2) 17 (1.1)

+Millet residues 88.5 (1.5) 11.3 (1.1) 87.2 (1.5) 12.6 (1.5)

+Manure 86.3 (0.9) 13.6 (0.8) 84.6 (1.4) 15 (1.3)

+Organic wastes 86.6 (0.6) 13.8 (0.7) 85.8 (0.7) 14.5 (0.9)
ESM 3: Four factors Random Forest Analysis (with time of sampling included as a fourth factor in the RF analysis) showing the importance of the time of
sampling, i.e., cropping cycle (corresponding to the rainy season) or the non-cropping period (dry season), as an explanatory factor of the size of the POX-C
pool in carbon-poor cultivated sandy soils of the groundnut basin of Senegal.