Eco-functionality of organic matter in soils

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MARSCHNER REVIEW

Eco-functionality of organic matter in soils Ellis Hoffland & Thomas W. Kuyper & Rob N. J. Comans & Rachel E. Creamer

Received: 11 December 2019 / Accepted: 26 July 2020 # The Author(s) 2020

Abstract Background Soil organic matter (SOM) supports multiple soil ecosystem functions, underpinned by processes such as C sequestration, N mineralization, aggregation, promotion of plant health and compound retention. We know little about the relationship between these functions and SOM quality. Scope We aimed to develop “eco-functionality” as a framework to address questions on the relation between SOM properties and soil ecosystem functions.

Ellis Hoffland and Thomas W. Kuyper contributed equally to this work.

Conclusions Paradigm shifts in SOM research have not led to metrics for eco-functionality beyond decomposability and C:N ratio. Recalcitrant OM is underresearched despite its essential role in aggregation and C sequestration, especially in C-saturated soils. Most soil functions are dependent on SOM decomposition and require labile compounds. We conclude that ecofunctionality is context-dependent and needs to take time scales into account. We plea for attempts to link operationally defined SOM fractions to functions in order to make SOM research more applicable. Keywords Eco-functionality . Soil organic matter . Property-function relationship

Responsible Editor: Ismail Cakmak. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04651-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. (*) : T. W. Kuyper : R. E. Creamer

E. Hoffland Soil Biology Group, Wageningen University, P.O.Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected]

T. W. Kuyper e-mail: [email protected] R. E. Creamer e-mail: [email protected] R. N. J. Comans Soil Chemistry and Chemical Soil Quality, Wageningen University, P.O.Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected]

Introduction Soil organic matter (SOM) is accumulated, decaying debris mainly of plant origin. The plant material that enters the soil can be in a dissolved or particulate form. Dissolved inputs can be leaf and needle litter leachates, root exudates and rhizodeposits (Sokol et al. 2018); particulate plant material consists mainly of senesced or dead shoot and root litter. Soil OM is both a substrate (energy and nutrient source) for, and a product of soil microorganisms. While the input of organic material to the soil has an overwhelming plant signature, SOM gradually becomes dominated by molecules of microbial signature (Kallenbach et al. 2016). Microbial necromass is estimated to account for 30 (temperate forest soils) - 62% (grassland soils) of total soil organic

Plant Soil

carbon in the topsoil (Liang et al. 2019). Dissolved OM usually accounts for less than 2% of SOM (Von Lützow et al. 2007). Soil OM research was originally focussed on soil fertility, and later on the interactions with heavy metals in the context of soil contamina

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