Elucidating the complex interrelationships of soil organic carbon fractions with land use/land cover types and landform attributes in a montane ecosystem

Purpose Soil organic carbon (SOC) consists of different fractions characterized by different physical sizes, chemical composition, and turnover rates. As these fractions might respond differently to the environmental factors, deciphering their relationships with environmental factors is useful to better understand carbon (C) dynamics. Therefore, this study was aimed to elucidate the complex interrelationships of SOC fractions with land use/land cover (LULC) types and landform attributes in a montane ecosystem of Bhutan. Materials and methods Soil samples were collected based on genetic horizons from the sites predetermined by condition Latin hypercube sampling (cLHS) scheme. Samples were then fractionated into >53 and 53 and