Organic carbon controls water retention and plant available water in cultivated soils from South Greenland

The warming climate is rapidly changing the circumpolar region, presenting new opportunities and challenges for agricultural production in South Greenland. projected to increase frequency of drought periods, but little known about soil–water retention (SWR) plant available water (PAW) soils region. This study aimed measure SWR PAW Greenlandic evaluate effect organic carbon (OC) clay (CL) content using pedotransfer functions based on OC CL. included 464 soil samples from 20 fields with a wide distribution (0.016–0.184 kg kg−1) contents (0.006–0.254 kg−1). Pedotransfer were successfully developed estimating gravimetric (w) at five potentials (−1500, −100, −30, −10, −5 kPa) PAW. was primary variable governing each potential, evidenced by R2 values consistently above 0.80. −1500 kPa close range reported literature, effects markedly higher between −100 kPa. Overall, this highlights substantial as 1% increased more than 4%, which almost twice value recent meta-study. Our potentially dominating matter balance availability high-latitude agriculture.