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Full-Text Articles in Chemistry
Carbon And Nitrogen Dynamics From Slow Pools Of Soil Organic Matter In A Temperate Forest: Pyrogenic Organic Matter And And Root Litter, Fernanda Dos Santos
Carbon And Nitrogen Dynamics From Slow Pools Of Soil Organic Matter In A Temperate Forest: Pyrogenic Organic Matter And And Root Litter, Fernanda Dos Santos
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Soil organic matter (SOM) is the dominant reservoir of organic carbon (OC) in terrestrial ecosystems, storing approximately three times the size of the C pool in the atmosphere. In temperate forests, a major fraction of the SOM consists of slowly decaying soil organic C (SOC) pools. While slowly cycling C pools constitute a large reservoir of stable C in soils, the dominant environmental factors controlling this C pool remain unresolved. This research investigates two significant, but poorly characterized slowly decaying C pools: fine root litter (< 2mm) and thermally altered plant biomass (pyrogenic organic matter, PyOM). Specifically, I used compound-specific stable isotope analysis (13C and 15N) as my main methodological approach to examine the (1) …