Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property

Michael W. I. Schmidt (), Margaret S. Torn (), Samuel Abiven, Thorsten Dittmar, Georg Guggenberger, Ivan A. Janssens, Markus Kleber, Ingrid Kögel-Knabner, Johannes Lehmann, David A. C. Manning, Paolo Nannipieri, Daniel P. Rasse, Steve Weiner and Susan E. Trumbore
Additional contact information
Michael W. I. Schmidt: University of Zurich
Margaret S. Torn: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Samuel Abiven: University of Zurich
Thorsten Dittmar: Max Planck Research Group for Marine Geochemistry, University of Oldenburg, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment
Georg Guggenberger: Institute of Soil Science, Leibniz Universität Hannover
Ivan A. Janssens: University of Antwerp
Markus Kleber: Oregon State University
Ingrid Kögel-Knabner: Lehrstuhl für Bodenkunde, Technische Universität München
Johannes Lehmann: Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University
David A. C. Manning: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability, Newcastle University
Paolo Nannipieri: Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Firenze
Daniel P. Rasse: Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research
Steve Weiner: Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute
Susan E. Trumbore: Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry

Nature, 2011, vol. 478, issue 7367, 49-56

Abstract: Soil carbon stability revisited The mechanisms underpinning soil carbon stability are complicated. The future response of soil carbon to climate change is uncertain but crucial, given that the carbon pool in soils is three times greater than that of the atmosphere. In a Perspective, Michael Schmidt and an international team of collaborators discuss how our understanding of soil carbon cycling has been changing. Rather than being mostly a function of molecular structure, as has been assumed, soil organic carbon stability is an ecosystem property. This means that it arises from complex interactions among many biotic and abiotic factors that are not fully understood. This fact must be more rigorously addressed in a new generation of experiments and soil carbon models, say Schmidt et al., if we are to improve our attempts to understand this vital component of the Earth system.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10386

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