Impact of carrion decomposition on soil physicochemical parameters beneath rabbit carcasses placed on the surface and buried in three types of soil in Malaysia

Decomposing carcasses release a large amount of nutrients which can affect nutrient cycling and soil organisms in-situ. Hence, the impact of carrion decomposition on soil chemistry profiles is relevant to forensic science, which could be helpful in the estimation of post-mortem interval.
We investigated the effect of carrion decomposition on soil physicochemical parameters (i.e., pH, EC, moisture content, ammonia, nitrate, phosphorous, and carbon) beneath rabbit carcasses up to 120 days of decomposition on three different types of soil (i.e., sandy, clay, and peat). A total of 18 rabbit carcasses were used for the research, six for each soil site whereby three carcasses were placed on the surface while the other three were buried in soil at the depth of 50 cm). For surface carcasses, soil pH and EC showed a significant increase (p< 0.05) during the early stages of decomposition in sandy soil (day 2 to day 12), clay soil (day 6 to day 16), and peat soil (day 6 to day 14), respectively. On the other hand, ammonia, nitrate, phosphorus, and carbon show a significant increase during the later stages of decomposition after day 24 of decomposition in all three types of soils. The buried carcasses demonstrated a significant difference (p< 0.05) in soil ammonia, nitrate, and phosphorus from day 15 to day 60 (for sandy soil), day 10 to day 30 (clay soil), and day 20 to day 90 (peat soil), respectively. After day 120, these soil parameters returned to basal level as the controls (soil without carrion).