Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property

authored by: Michael W.I. Schmidt, Margaret S. Torn, Samuel Abiven, Thorsten Dittmar, Georg Guggenberger, Ivan A. Janssens, Markus Kleber, Ingrid Kögel-Knabner, Johannes Lehmann, David A.C. Manning, Paolo Nannipieri, Daniel P. Rasse, Steve Weiner, Susan E. Trumbore
Abstract: Globally, soil organic matter (SOM) contains more than three times as much carbon as either the atmosphere or terrestrial vegetation. Yet it remains largely unknown why some SOM persists for millennia whereas other SOM decomposes readily and this limits our ability to predict how soils will respond to climate change. Recent analytical and experimental advances have demonstrated that molecular structure alone does not control SOM stability: in fact, environmental and biological controls predominate. Here we propose ways to include this understanding in a new generation of experiments and soil carbon models, thereby improving predictions of the SOM response to global warming.
Organisation(s): Institute of Soil Science
Section Soil Chemistry
External Organisation(s): Universität Zürich (UZH)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
University of California (UCLA)
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
University of Antwerp (UAntwerpen)
Oregon State University
Cornell University
Newcastle University
University of Florence (UniFi)
Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research
Weizmann Institute of Science
Max Planck Institute of Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC)
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Type: Review article
Journal: NATURE
Volume: 478
Pages: 49-56
No. of pages: 8
ISSN: 0028-0836
Publication date: 05.10.2011
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 13 - Climate Action
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10386 (Access: Closed)
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc844476/m2/1/high_res_d/1051632.pdf (Access: Open)