Unravelling the thermodynamic properties of soil ecosystems in mature beech forests

Thermodynamics is a vast area of knowledge with a debatable role in explaining the evolution of ecosystems. In the case of soil ecosystems, this role is still unclear due to difficulties in determining the thermodynamic functions that are involved in the survival and evolution of soils as living systems. The existing knowledge is largely based on theoretical approaches and has never been applied to soils using thermodynamic functions that have been experimentally determined. In this study, we present a method for the complete experimental thermodynamic characterization of soil organic matter. This method quantifies all the thermodynamic functions for combustion and formation reactions which are involved in the thermodynamic principles governing the evolution of the universe. We applied them to track the progress of soil organic matter with soil depth in mature beech forests. Our results show that soil organic matter evolves to a higher degree of reduction as it is mineralized, yielding products with lower carbon but higher energy content than the original organic matter used as reference. These products have higher entropy than the original one, demonstrating how the soil ecosystem evolves with depth, in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics. The results were sensitive to soil organic matter transformation in forests under different management, indicating potential applicability in elucidating the energy strategies for evolution and survival of soil systems as well as in settling their evolutionary states.