E. Besnard et al., FATE OF PARTICULATE ORGANIC-MATTER IN SOIL AGGREGATES DURING CULTIVATION, European journal of soil science, 47(4), 1996, pp. 495-503
Particulate organic matter (POM) is a labile fraction of soil organic
matter which is thought to be physically protected from biodegradation
when within soil aggregates. We have developed a fractionation method
to separate POM located outside stable soil macroaggregates (>200 mu
m) and microaggregates (50-200 mu m) from that within them, and applie
d it to a cultivation sequence of humic loamy soils. The natural abund
ance of C-13 was used to determine the amounts of POM derived from for
est and that derived from crop in the free and occluded fractions. In
the forest soil the free and occluded POM fractions had the same compo
sition, morphology and isotopic signature. On cultivation the amounts
of POM decreased sharply. The loss of C in the POM from forest was mai
nly from POM outside the aggregates. The POM occluded within microaggr
egates was found to turnover slowly. This may be due either to its rec
alcitrant chemical nature or to its physical protection within microag
gregates.