title: In situ visualisation and characterisation of the capacity of highly reactive minerals to preserve soil organic matter (SOM) in colloids at submicron scale.
abstract: Mineral-organo associations (MOAs) are a mixture of identifiable biopolymers associated with highly reactive minerals and microorganisms. However, the in situ characterization and correlation between soil organic matter (SOM) and highly reactive Al and Fe minerals are still unclear for the lack of technologies, particularly in the long-term agricultural soil colloids at submicron scale. We combined several novel techniques, including nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) to characterise the capacity of highly reactive Al and Fe minerals to preserve SOM in Ferralic Cambisol in south China. Our results demonstrated that: (1) highly reactive minerals were strongly related to SOM preservation, while SOM had a more significant line correlation with the highly reactive Al minerals than the highly reactive Fe minerals, according to the regions of interest correlation analyses using NanoSIMS; (2) allophane and ferrihydrite were the potential mineral species to determine the SOM preservation capability, which was evaluated by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fe K-edge XANES spectroscopy techniques; and (3) soil organic biopolymers with dominant compounds, such as proteins, polysaccharides and lipids, were distributed at the rough and clustered surface of MOAs with high chemical and spatial heterogeneity according to the CLSM observation. Our results also promoted the understanding of the roles played by the highly reactive Al and Fe minerals in the spatial distribution of soil organic biopolymers and SOM sequestration.
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Organic-based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Organic-based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Yongli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Organic-based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Jialong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Organic-based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Qirong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Organic-based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ran
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Organic-based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Xinlan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.affiliation: School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Xinhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Organic-based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. Electronic address: yuguanghui@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Guanghui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D017607:Aluminum Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry; D002681:China; D003102:Colloids / Q000032:analysis*; D005308:Fertilizers; D058085:Iron Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008903:Minerals / Q000737:chemistry*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000592:standards; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D013499:Surface Properties; D056928:X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy; D014965:X-Rays
chemical_list: D017607:Aluminum Compounds; D001704:Biopolymers; D003102:Colloids; D005308:Fertilizers; D058085:Iron Compounds; D008903:Minerals; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants
keywords: Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM); Mineral-organo associations (MOAs); Nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS); Soil colloids; X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES)