Abstract

The stocks of soil organic carbon were studied under moderate (6 SRU ha-1 year-1) and intensive goat grazing (10 SRU ha-1 year-1) and compared with the stock present under native vegetation in the experimental station of Las Cardas (Coquimbo region, Chile). Results show that under moderate goat grazing (6 SRU ha-1 year-1), the organic carbon stock to 1m of depth would not be affected with 24.3 to 29.3 Mg ha-1 compared to 31.1 to 42.6 Mg ha-1 under native vegetation. These stocks are not significantly different (P=0.95) and the differences can be attributed to the variability between replications. On the other hand, under intense goat grazing, the organic carbon stock was only 10.2 to 15.5 Mg ha-1. Finally, our results show that it is possible to predict the stock of soil organic carbon by using the stock of soil organic carbon within the 0-30cm top layer alone (R2=0.89) with a bias of <0.1 Mg ha-1 and a precision of 3.6 Mg ha-1 .