Publication Date:
2015-11-26
Description:
The exchange of nutrients, energy and carbon between soil organic matter, the soil environment, aquatic systems and the atmosphere is important for agricultural productivity, water quality and climate. Long-standing theory suggests that soil organic matter is composed of inherently stable and chemically unique compounds. Here we argue that the available evidence does not support the formation of large-molecular-size and persistent 'humic substances' in soils. Instead, soil organic matter is a continuum of progressively decomposing organic compounds. We discuss implications of this view of the nature of soil organic matter for aquatic health, soil carbon-climate interactions and land management.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lehmann, Johannes -- Kleber, Markus -- England -- Nature. 2015 Dec 3;528(7580):60-8. doi: 10.1038/nature16069. Epub 2015 Nov 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Soil and Crop Sciences, School of Integrated Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. ; Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. ; Department of Crop and Soil Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA. ; Institut fur Bodenlandschaftsforschung, Leibniz Zentrum fur Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF), Muncheberg, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26595271" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Agriculture
;
Carbon Cycle
;
Crops, Agricultural/metabolism
;
Ecosystem
;
Humic Substances/*analysis
;
Soil/*chemistry
;
Water/chemistry
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
