DOI: 10.18167/dvn1/78a2ii
title: A global database on land use and management change effects on soil KMnO4-oxidisable organic carbon (POXC)
title: Une base de données mondiale sur les effets des changements d'usage et de gestion des terres sur le carbone organique du sol oxydable au KMnO4
title: Una base de datos global sobre los efectos de los cambios en el uso y la gestión de la tierra sobre el carbono orgánico del suelo oxidable por KMnO4

description: Soil carbon transformation is vital for ecosystem functions like food production and climate regulation. While soil organic carbon is a key soil health indicator, its sensitivity to management changes is debated. Alternative indicators, such as permanganate-oxidisable carbon (POXC), are being explored. This database compiles 10,068 comparisons of soil POXC content from 284 peer-reviewed studies published up to 2023, covering 45 countries and 63 land use types, including arable land, grassland, agroforestry, and forests. Most studies focused on arable land (n = 7,809), examining input changes (n &gt; 500) and tillage intensity (n &gt; 200). The most studied land-use changes were grassland conversion to arable land (n = 324) and vice versa (n = 261). The dataset includes rich metadata on geographical context, soil types, key properties (pH, clay content), POXC protocols, and data quality scores. This resource supports scientific and policy discussions on POXC’s potential as a practical indicator for improving land use and soil health management.
description: The data collection followed Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES) guidelines v3.2018, and adhered to the gold standard of systematic review. Our methodology is based on a repeatable paper selection procedure, provides a complete list of references, and ensures dataset availability. The literature search was initially conducted on February 03, 2023 and updated on February 02, 2024, and aimed to identify relevant peer-reviewed articles without language restriction. The following searching equation was used: “Soil AND carbon AND (permanganate OR POXC OR KMnO4)”, applied to the “topic words” (titles, abstracts and keywords). The search was carried out in 4 databases: Web of Science (WoS) core collection; Scopus; OVID; and Google Scholar. In google Scholar, only the first 200 search results in English, ranked by relevance, were reviewed, as this engine is highly precise primarily within the top-ranked results. In addition to the database searches, 15 primary studies or datasets identified in meta-analyses and systematic syntheses within the initial corpus were manually added during the review process. No restriction was applied regarding the year of publication, except for Google Scholar, where the search was limited to studies published between 2003 and 2023. All climatic zones and countries were considered. We prioritized sensitivity over specificity, meaning the search strategy aimed to collect the largest selection of potentially relevant studies at the risk of obtaining a higher number of non-relevant studies. This strategy increased the duration of the screening step and the number of final rejected studies. In total, 1,130 studies were identified, including 735 unique records, which were compiled as candidate for inclusion.