Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property

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

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

4471 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)49-56
Number of pages8
JournalNature
Volume478
Issue number7367
DOIs
StatePublished - 6 Oct 2011
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this