Articles | Volume 17, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-3099-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-3099-2020
Research article
 | 
18 Jun 2020
Research article |  | 18 Jun 2020

Relevance of aboveground litter for soil organic matter formation – a soil profile perspective

Patrick Liebmann, Patrick Wordell-Dietrich, Karsten Kalbitz, Robert Mikutta, Fabian Kalks, Axel Don, Susanne K. Woche, Leena R. Dsilva, and Georg Guggenberger

Download

Interactive discussion

Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
Printer-friendly Version - Printer-friendly version Supplement - Supplement

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (14 Mar 2020) by Yakov Kuzyakov
AR by Patrick Liebmann on behalf of the Authors (17 Mar 2020)  Author's response   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (11 Apr 2020) by Yakov Kuzyakov
RR by Anonymous Referee #5 (23 Apr 2020)
RR by Anonymous Referee #4 (27 Apr 2020)
ED: Publish as is (29 Apr 2020) by Yakov Kuzyakov
AR by Patrick Liebmann on behalf of the Authors (04 May 2020)
Download
Short summary
We studied the contribution of litter-derived carbon (C) in the formation of subsoil organic matter (OM). Soil core sampling, 13C field labeling, density fractionation, and water extractions were used to track its contribution to different functional OM fractions down to the deep subsoil. We show that while migrating down the soil profile, OM undergoes a sequence of repeated sorption, microbial processing, and desorption. However, the contribution of litter-derived C to subsoil OM is small.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint