Key predictors of soil organic matter vulnerability to mineralization differ with depth at a continental scale

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dc.contributor.authorWeiglein, Tyler L.en
dc.contributor.authorStrahm, Brian D.en
dc.contributor.authorBowman, Maggie M.en
dc.contributor.authorGallo, Adrian C.en
dc.contributor.authorHatten, Jeff A.en
dc.contributor.authorHeckman, Katherine A.en
dc.contributor.authorMatosziuk, Lauren M.en
dc.contributor.authorNave, Lucas E.en
dc.contributor.authorPossinger, Angela R.en
dc.contributor.authorSanClements, Michael D.en
dc.contributor.authorSwanston, Christopher W.en
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-30T15:26:12Zen
dc.date.available2021-11-30T15:26:12Zen
dc.date.issued2021-11-06en
dc.description.abstractSoil organic matter (SOM) is the largest terrestrial pool of organic carbon, and potential carbon-climate feedbacks involving SOM decomposition could exacerbate anthropogenic climate change. However, our understanding of the controls on SOM mineralization is still incomplete, and as such, our ability to predict carbon-climate feedbacks is limited. To improve our understanding of controls on SOM decomposition, A and upper B horizon soil samples from 26 National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) sites spanning the conterminous U.S. were incubated for 52 weeks under conditions representing site-specific mean summer temperature and sample-specific field capacity (-33 kPa) water potential. Cumulative carbon dioxide respired was periodically measured and normalized by soil organic C content to calculate cumulative specific respiration (CSR), a metric of SOM vulnerability to mineralization. The Boruta algorithm, a feature selection algorithm, was used to select important predictors of CSR from 159 variables. A diverse suite of predictors was selected (12 for A horizons, 7 for B horizons) with predictors falling into three categories corresponding to SOM chemistry, reactive Fe and Al phases, and site moisture availability. The relationship between SOM chemistry predictors and CSR was complex, while sites that had greater concentrations of reactive Fe and Al phases or were wetter had lower CSR. Only three predictors were selected for both horizon types, suggesting dominant controls on SOM decomposition differ by horizon. Our findings contribute to the emerging consensus that a broad array of controls regulates SOM decomposition at large scales and highlight the need to consider changing controls with depth.en
dc.description.notesThis study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation under awards EF-1340250 and DBI-1724433. Work at EMSL was carried out as part of a DOE Rapid Access User Proposal (Proposal No. 50684).en
dc.description.sponsorshipU.S. National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [EF-1340250, DBI-1724433]en
dc.description.versionPublished versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00856-xen
dc.identifier.eissn1573-515Xen
dc.identifier.issn0168-2563en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/106775en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectNational Ecological Observatory Networken
dc.subjectNEONen
dc.subjectSoil organic carbonen
dc.subjectDecompositionen
dc.subjectIncubationen
dc.subjectCumulative specific respirationen
dc.titleKey predictors of soil organic matter vulnerability to mineralization differ with depth at a continental scaleen
dc.title.serialBiogeochemistryen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypetexten

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