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Updated: Jul 4, 2025

Monitoring Pedogenic Inorganic Carbon Accumulation Due to Weathering of Amended Silicate Minerals in Agricultural Soils.
Published on: June 4, 2021
Mineral composition controls the stabilization of microbially derived carbon and nitrogen in soils: Insights from an
Xu Wang1, Chao Wang1,2, Xianlei Fan3,4
1CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China.
Abstract:
Evidence is emerging that microbial products and residues (necromass) contribute greatly to stable soil organic matter (SOM), which calls for the necessity of separating the microbial necromass from other SOM pools in models. However, the understanding on how microbial necromass stabilizes in soil, especially the mineral protection mechanisms, is still lacking. Here, we incubated 13 C- and 15 N-labelled microbial necromass in a series of artificial soils varying in clay minerals and metal oxides. We found the mineralization, adsorption and desorption rate constants of necromass nitrogen were higher than those of necromass carbon. The accumulation rates of necromass carbon and nitrogen in mineral-associated SOM were positively correlated with the specific surface area of clay minerals. Our results provide direct evidence for the protection role of mineral in microbial necromass stabilization and provide a platform for simulating microbial necromass separately in SOM models.
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