Part of the Carbon in Global Boreal and Alpine Soils Under Climate Change-Driven Land Use fellowship sampling.

Saskatchewan

Soils were mostly collected from the family farm of Dr. Jeff Schoenau (University of Saskatchewan), near Central Butte, Saskatchewan (southwest of Saskatoon), from drier brown-prairie soils converted to agriculture. Additional forest soils were gathered north of Saskatoon at the prairie/forest transition.

Samples at Central Butte included 100-year annually cropped land, 30-year abandoned cropland, native prairie/steppe, a grazed prairie-adjacent field, a shelterbelt, and a cattle-feeding area; wheat subsamples were provided by a graduate student. The land was mostly flat with some knob-and-kettle glacial-till depressions. Soil was glacial till (brown Chernozem) at Central Butte, and Orthic grey and black Luvisols for the forest soils. Samples were taken within one day and refrigerated. The work was supported by Dr. Ryan Hangs and Dr. Jeff Schoenau (Central Butte) and Dr. Joel Ens, Dr. Ken Van Rees, and Lyle Cowell (forest), all associated with the University of Saskatchewan.