title: Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property.
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.
authors: Department of Geography, University of Zurich, 8050 Zürich, Switzerland. Michael.Schmidt@geo.uzh.ch
authors: Michael W I
authors: MW
authors: Schmidt
authors: Margaret S
authors: MS
authors: Torn
authors: Samuel
authors: S
authors: Abiven
authors: Thorsten
authors: T
authors: Dittmar
authors: Georg
authors: G
authors: Guggenberger
authors: Ivan A
authors: IA
authors: Janssens
authors: Markus
authors: M
authors: Kleber
authors: Ingrid
authors: I
authors: Kögel-Knabner
authors: Johannes
authors: J
authors: Lehmann
authors: David A C
authors: DA
authors: Manning
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Nannipieri
authors: Daniel P
authors: DP
authors: Rasse
authors: Steve
authors: S
authors: Weiner
authors: Susan E
authors: SE
authors: Trumbore
mesh_terms: D057005:Bioengineering; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism*; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D002606:Charcoal / Q000378:metabolism; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D005615:Freezing; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000378:metabolism; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals; D012987:Soil; C540010:biochar; D002606:Charcoal; D002244:Carbon