Abstract:
Changing climatic conditions in Germany mainly affect hydromorphic soils formed by groundwater. They offer
comparatively high carbon contents and, as the only soil group, also accumulate C in the subsoil. The assessment
of the storage capacity of these soils is essential to assign 'risk areas' according to national (German Federal Soil
Protection Act, 1998) and international (EU Soil Protection Strategy, 2006) soil protection requirements. An
appropriate water management enables preservation and protection of the soil organic matter in hydromorphic
soils. Both aims, as a part of resource protection, require knowledge of the carbon stock of the soils and the
transformation of area restricted results to a regional scale. Assessments comprise of two steps: in the first step,
the carbon content of so-called horizon-substrate-combinations (HSC) for profiles of the dominant soil of a soil
mapping unit is determined. This method is based on the hypothesis, that comparable soil properties are formed
by equal soil substrates and pedogenetic processes. In the second step, the results are assigned to the profiles of
the dominant soil of the soil mapping unit and extended to spatial polygons of functional maps. Carbon stock of
hydromorphic soils is determined for the federal state Brandenburg, located in the northeast of Germany.
Brandenburg is characterised by a percentage of 40 % hydromorphic soils of the country's territory and features
a high vulnerability according to studies concerning climate change. The authors offer a proposal for the
assignment of 'risk areas' and management principles for hydromorphic soils.
