Articles | Volume 18, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1241-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1241-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Age distribution, extractability, and stability of mineral-bound organic carbon in central European soils
Marion Schrumpf
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena 07745, Germany
Klaus Kaiser
Soil Science, Martin Luther University
Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale) 06120, Germany
Allegra Mayer
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University
of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Günter Hempel
Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle
(Saale) 06120, Germany
Susan Trumbore
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena 07745, Germany
Related authors
Marleen Pallandt, Marion Schrumpf, Holger Lange, Markus Reichstein, Lin Yu, and Bernhard Ahrens
Biogeosciences, 22, 1907–1928, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1907-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1907-2025, 2025
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As soils warm due to climate change, soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposes faster due to increased microbial activity, given sufficient available moisture. We modelled the microbial decomposition of plant litter and residue at different depths and found that deep soil layers are more sensitive than topsoils. Warming causes SOC loss, but its extent depends on the litter type and its temperature sensitivity, which can either counteract or amplify losses. Droughts may also counteract warming-induced SOC losses.
Marijn Van de Broek, Gerard Govers, Marion Schrumpf, and Johan Six
Biogeosciences, 22, 1427–1446, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1427-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1427-2025, 2025
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Soil organic carbon models are used to predict how soils affect the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. We show that equifinality – the phenomenon that different parameter values lead to correct overall model outputs, albeit with a different model behaviour – is an important source of model uncertainty. Our results imply that adding more complexity to soil organic carbon models is unlikely to lead to better predictions as long as more data to constrain model parameters are not available.
Thomas Wutzler, Christian Reimers, Bernhard Ahrens, and Marion Schrumpf
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2705–2725, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2705-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2705-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Soil microbes provide a strong link for elemental fluxes in the earth system. The SESAM model applies an optimality assumption to model those linkages and their adaptation. We found that a previous heuristic description was a special case of a newly developed more rigorous description. The finding of new behaviour at low microbial biomass led us to formulate the constrained enzyme hypothesis. We now can better describe how microbially mediated linkages of elemental fluxes adapt across decades.
Richard Nair, Yunpeng Luo, Tarek El-Madany, Victor Rolo, Javier Pacheco-Labrador, Silvia Caldararu, Kendalynn A. Morris, Marion Schrumpf, Arnaud Carrara, Gerardo Moreno, Markus Reichstein, and Mirco Migliavacca
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2434, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2434, 2023
Preprint archived
Short summary
Short summary
We studied a Mediterranean ecosystem to understand carbon uptake efficiency and its controls. These ecosystems face potential nitrogen-phosphorus imbalances due to pollution. Analysing six years of carbon data, we assessed controls at different timeframes. This is crucial for predicting such vulnerable regions. Our findings revealed N limitation on C uptake, not N:P imbalance, and strong influence of water availability. whether drought or wetness promoted net C uptake depended on timescale.
Shane W. Stoner, Marion Schrumpf, Alison Hoyt, Carlos A. Sierra, Sebastian Doetterl, Valier Galy, and Susan Trumbore
Biogeosciences, 20, 3151–3163, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3151-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3151-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Soils store more carbon (C) than any other terrestrial C reservoir, but the processes that control how much C stays in soil, and for how long, are very complex. Here, we used a recent method that involves heating soil in the lab to measure the range of C ages in soil. We found that most C in soil is decades to centuries old, while some stays for much shorter times (days to months), and some is thousands of years old. Such detail helps us to estimate how soil C may react to changing climate.
Lin Yu, Silvia Caldararu, Bernhard Ahrens, Thomas Wutzler, Marion Schrumpf, Julian Helfenstein, Chiara Pistocchi, and Sönke Zaehle
Biogeosciences, 20, 57–73, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-57-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-57-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we addressed a key weakness in current ecosystem models regarding the phosphorus exchange in the soil and developed a new scheme to describe this process. We showed that the new scheme improved the model performance for plant productivity, soil organic carbon, and soil phosphorus content at five beech forest sites in Germany. We claim that this new model could be used as a better tool to study ecosystems under future climate change, particularly phosphorus-limited systems.
Thomas Wutzler, Lin Yu, Marion Schrumpf, and Sönke Zaehle
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 8377–8393, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8377-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8377-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Soil microbes process soil organic matter and affect carbon storage and plant nutrition at the ecosystem scale. We hypothesized that decadal dynamics is constrained by the ratios of elements in litter inputs, microbes, and matter and that microbial community optimizes growth. This allowed the SESAM model to descibe decadal-term carbon sequestration in soils and other biogeochemical processes explicitly accounting for microbial processes but without its problematic fine-scale parameterization.
Jeffrey Prescott Beem-Miller, Craig Rasmussen, Alison May Hoyt, Marion Schrumpf, Georg Guggenberger, and Susan Trumbore
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1083, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1083, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
We compared the age of persistent soil organic matter as well as active emissions of carbon dioxide from soils across a gradient of climate and geology. We found that clay minerals are more important than mean annual temperature for both persistent and actively cycling soil carbon, and that they may attenuate the sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition to temperature. Accounting for geology and soil development could therefore improve estimates of soil carbon stocks and changes.
Rachael Akinyede, Martin Taubert, Marion Schrumpf, Susan Trumbore, and Kirsten Küsel
Biogeosciences, 19, 4011–4028, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4011-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4011-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Soils will likely become warmer in the future, and this can increase the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. As microbes can take up soil CO2 and prevent further escape into the atmosphere, this study compares the rate of uptake and release of CO2 at two different temperatures. With warming, the rate of CO2 uptake increases less than the rate of release, indicating that the capacity to modulate soil CO2 release into the atmosphere will decrease under future warming.
Marleen Pallandt, Marion Schrumpf, Holger Lange, Markus Reichstein, Lin Yu, and Bernhard Ahrens
Biogeosciences, 22, 1907–1928, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1907-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1907-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
As soils warm due to climate change, soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposes faster due to increased microbial activity, given sufficient available moisture. We modelled the microbial decomposition of plant litter and residue at different depths and found that deep soil layers are more sensitive than topsoils. Warming causes SOC loss, but its extent depends on the litter type and its temperature sensitivity, which can either counteract or amplify losses. Droughts may also counteract warming-induced SOC losses.
Carlos A. Sierra, Ingrid Chanca, Meinrat Andreae, Alessandro Carioca de Araújo, Hella van Asperen, Lars Borchardt, Santiago Botía, Luiz Antonio Candido, Caio S. C. Correa, Cléo Quaresma Dias-Junior, Markus Eritt, Annica Fröhlich, Luciana V. Gatti, Marcus Guderle, Samuel Hammer, Martin Heimann, Viviana Horna, Armin Jordan, Steffen Knabe, Richard Kneißl, Jost Valentin Lavric, Ingeborg Levin, Kita Macario, Juliana Menger, Heiko Moossen, Carlos Alberto Quesada, Michael Rothe, Christian Rödenbeck, Yago Santos, Axel Steinhof, Bruno Takeshi, Susan Trumbore, and Sönke Zaehle
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-151, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-151, 2025
Preprint under review for ESSD
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We present here a unique dataset of atmospheric observations of greenhouse gases and isotopes that provide key information on land-atmosphere interactions for the Amazon forests of central Brazil. The data show a relatively large level of variability, but also important trends in greenhouse gases, and signals from fires as well as seasonal biological activity.
Marijn Van de Broek, Gerard Govers, Marion Schrumpf, and Johan Six
Biogeosciences, 22, 1427–1446, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1427-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1427-2025, 2025
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Soil organic carbon models are used to predict how soils affect the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. We show that equifinality – the phenomenon that different parameter values lead to correct overall model outputs, albeit with a different model behaviour – is an important source of model uncertainty. Our results imply that adding more complexity to soil organic carbon models is unlikely to lead to better predictions as long as more data to constrain model parameters are not available.
Günter Hempel
Magn. Reson., 6, 77–92, https://doi.org/10.5194/mr-6-77-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/mr-6-77-2025, 2025
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A method is presented which can be used to find analytical equations describing the behavior of a system of nuclear spins, even for moderately complex problems. The method does not use any approximation techniques. Some examples are given to illustrate the application. Despite the undoubted success of numerical methods, analytical results are often more suitable than numerical results for promoting physical understanding in teaching and scientific discussion.
Ingrid Chanca, Ingeborg Levin, Susan Trumbore, Kita Macario, Jost Lavric, Carlos Alberto Quesada, Alessandro Carioca de Araújo, Cléo Quaresma Dias Júnior, Hella van Asperen, Samuel Hammer, and Carlos A. Sierra
Biogeosciences, 22, 455–472, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-455-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-455-2025, 2025
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Assessing the net carbon (C) budget of the Amazon entails considering the magnitude and timing of C absorption and losses through respiration (transit time of C). Radiocarbon-based estimates of the transit time of C in the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) suggest a change in the transit time from 6 ± 2 years and 18 ± 4 years within 2 years (October 2019 and December 2021, respectively). This variability indicates that only a fraction of newly fixed C can be stored for decades or longer.
Luciano Emmert, Susan Trumbore, Joaquim dos Santos, Adriano Lima, Niro Higuchi, Robinson Negrón-Juárez, Cléo Dias-Júnior, Tarek El-Madany, Olaf Kolle, Gabriel Ribeiro, and Daniel Marra
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3234, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3234, 2024
Preprint archived
Short summary
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For the first time, we documented wind gusts with the potential to damage trees in a forest in the Central Amazon. We used meteorological data collected at crown height over 24 months. We recorded 424 gusts, which occur more frequently and intensely in higher elevated areas and during the transition from the dry to the wet season. More intense rains showed the strongest relationship with extreme winds, highlighting the role of extreme events in tree mortality.
Luiz A. T. Machado, Jürgen Kesselmeier, Santiago Botía, Hella van Asperen, Meinrat O. Andreae, Alessandro C. de Araújo, Paulo Artaxo, Achim Edtbauer, Rosaria R. Ferreira, Marco A. Franco, Hartwig Harder, Sam P. Jones, Cléo Q. Dias-Júnior, Guido G. Haytzmann, Carlos A. Quesada, Shujiro Komiya, Jost Lavric, Jos Lelieveld, Ingeborg Levin, Anke Nölscher, Eva Pfannerstill, Mira L. Pöhlker, Ulrich Pöschl, Akima Ringsdorf, Luciana Rizzo, Ana M. Yáñez-Serrano, Susan Trumbore, Wanda I. D. Valenti, Jordi Vila-Guerau de Arellano, David Walter, Jonathan Williams, Stefan Wolff, and Christopher Pöhlker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8893–8910, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8893-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8893-2024, 2024
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Composite analysis of gas concentration before and after rainfall, during the day and night, gives insight into the complex relationship between trace gas variability and precipitation. The analysis helps us to understand the sources and sinks of trace gases within a forest ecosystem. It elucidates processes that are not discernible under undisturbed conditions and contributes to a deeper understanding of the trace gas life cycle and its intricate interactions with cloud dynamics in the Amazon.
Hella van Asperen, Thorsten Warneke, Alessandro Carioca de Araújo, Bruce Forsberg, Sávio José Filgueiras Ferreira, Thomas Röckmann, Carina van der Veen, Sipko Bulthuis, Leonardo Ramos de Oliveira, Thiago de Lima Xavier, Jailson da Mata, Marta de Oliveira Sá, Paulo Ricardo Teixeira, Julie Andrews de França e Silva, Susan Trumbore, and Justus Notholt
Biogeosciences, 21, 3183–3199, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3183-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3183-2024, 2024
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Carbon monoxide (CO) is regarded as an important indirect greenhouse gas. Soils can emit and take up CO, but, until now, uncertainty remains as to which process dominates in tropical rainforests. We present the first soil CO flux measurements from a tropical rainforest. Based on our observations, we report that tropical rainforest soils are a net source of CO. In addition, we show that valley streams and inundated areas are likely additional hot spots of CO in the ecosystem.
Maximiliano González-Sosa, Carlos A. Sierra, J. Andrés Quincke, Walter E. Baethgen, Susan Trumbore, and M. Virginia Pravia
SOIL, 10, 467–486, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-467-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-467-2024, 2024
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Based on an approach that involved soil organic carbon (SOC) monitoring, radiocarbon measurement in bulk soil, and incubations from a long-term 60-year experiment, it was concluded that the avoidance of old carbon losses in the integrated crop–pasture systems is the main reason that explains their greater carbon storage capacities compared to continuous cropping. A better understanding of these processes is essential for making agronomic decisions to increase the carbon sequestration capacity.
Thomas Wutzler, Christian Reimers, Bernhard Ahrens, and Marion Schrumpf
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2705–2725, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2705-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2705-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Soil microbes provide a strong link for elemental fluxes in the earth system. The SESAM model applies an optimality assumption to model those linkages and their adaptation. We found that a previous heuristic description was a special case of a newly developed more rigorous description. The finding of new behaviour at low microbial biomass led us to formulate the constrained enzyme hypothesis. We now can better describe how microbially mediated linkages of elemental fluxes adapt across decades.
Günter Hempel, Ricardo Kurz, Silvia Paasch, Kay Saalwächter, and Eike Brunner
Magn. Reson., 5, 1–20, https://doi.org/10.5194/mr-5-1-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/mr-5-1-2024, 2024
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Investigations of metal–organic frameworks are presented. This substance class is of interest for applications in gas storage (hydrogen, methane), separation, catalysis, and sensor technology. The properties of the material depend on the mobility of alkyl or alkyloxy side chains. We have determined that the side-chain methylene groups move highly anisotropically with a relatively short correlation time. Furthermore, we could improve the analysis procedure for the experiment used here.
Richard Nair, Yunpeng Luo, Tarek El-Madany, Victor Rolo, Javier Pacheco-Labrador, Silvia Caldararu, Kendalynn A. Morris, Marion Schrumpf, Arnaud Carrara, Gerardo Moreno, Markus Reichstein, and Mirco Migliavacca
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2434, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2434, 2023
Preprint archived
Short summary
Short summary
We studied a Mediterranean ecosystem to understand carbon uptake efficiency and its controls. These ecosystems face potential nitrogen-phosphorus imbalances due to pollution. Analysing six years of carbon data, we assessed controls at different timeframes. This is crucial for predicting such vulnerable regions. Our findings revealed N limitation on C uptake, not N:P imbalance, and strong influence of water availability. whether drought or wetness promoted net C uptake depended on timescale.
Adriana Simonetti, Raquel Fernandes Araujo, Carlos Henrique Souza Celes, Flávia Ranara da Silva e Silva, Joaquim dos Santos, Niro Higuchi, Susan Trumbore, and Daniel Magnabosco Marra
Biogeosciences, 20, 3651–3666, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3651-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3651-2023, 2023
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We combined 2 years of monthly drone-acquired RGB (red–green–blue) imagery with field surveys in a central Amazon forest. Our results indicate that small gaps associated with branch fall were the most frequent. Biomass losses were partially controlled by gap area, with branch fall and snapping contributing the least and greatest relative values, respectively. Our study highlights the potential of drone images for monitoring canopy dynamics in dense tropical forests.
Shane W. Stoner, Marion Schrumpf, Alison Hoyt, Carlos A. Sierra, Sebastian Doetterl, Valier Galy, and Susan Trumbore
Biogeosciences, 20, 3151–3163, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3151-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3151-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Soils store more carbon (C) than any other terrestrial C reservoir, but the processes that control how much C stays in soil, and for how long, are very complex. Here, we used a recent method that involves heating soil in the lab to measure the range of C ages in soil. We found that most C in soil is decades to centuries old, while some stays for much shorter times (days to months), and some is thousands of years old. Such detail helps us to estimate how soil C may react to changing climate.
Lin Yu, Silvia Caldararu, Bernhard Ahrens, Thomas Wutzler, Marion Schrumpf, Julian Helfenstein, Chiara Pistocchi, and Sönke Zaehle
Biogeosciences, 20, 57–73, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-57-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-57-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we addressed a key weakness in current ecosystem models regarding the phosphorus exchange in the soil and developed a new scheme to describe this process. We showed that the new scheme improved the model performance for plant productivity, soil organic carbon, and soil phosphorus content at five beech forest sites in Germany. We claim that this new model could be used as a better tool to study ecosystems under future climate change, particularly phosphorus-limited systems.
Thomas Wutzler, Lin Yu, Marion Schrumpf, and Sönke Zaehle
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 8377–8393, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8377-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8377-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Soil microbes process soil organic matter and affect carbon storage and plant nutrition at the ecosystem scale. We hypothesized that decadal dynamics is constrained by the ratios of elements in litter inputs, microbes, and matter and that microbial community optimizes growth. This allowed the SESAM model to descibe decadal-term carbon sequestration in soils and other biogeochemical processes explicitly accounting for microbial processes but without its problematic fine-scale parameterization.
Jeffrey Prescott Beem-Miller, Craig Rasmussen, Alison May Hoyt, Marion Schrumpf, Georg Guggenberger, and Susan Trumbore
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1083, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1083, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
We compared the age of persistent soil organic matter as well as active emissions of carbon dioxide from soils across a gradient of climate and geology. We found that clay minerals are more important than mean annual temperature for both persistent and actively cycling soil carbon, and that they may attenuate the sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition to temperature. Accounting for geology and soil development could therefore improve estimates of soil carbon stocks and changes.
Rachael Akinyede, Martin Taubert, Marion Schrumpf, Susan Trumbore, and Kirsten Küsel
Biogeosciences, 19, 4011–4028, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4011-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4011-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Soils will likely become warmer in the future, and this can increase the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. As microbes can take up soil CO2 and prevent further escape into the atmosphere, this study compares the rate of uptake and release of CO2 at two different temperatures. With warming, the rate of CO2 uptake increases less than the rate of release, indicating that the capacity to modulate soil CO2 release into the atmosphere will decrease under future warming.
Jasmin Fetzer, Emmanuel Frossard, Klaus Kaiser, and Frank Hagedorn
Biogeosciences, 19, 1527–1546, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1527-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1527-2022, 2022
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As leaching is a major pathway of nitrogen and phosphorus loss in forest soils, we investigated several potential drivers in two contrasting beech forests. The composition of leachates, obtained by zero-tension lysimeters, varied by season, and climatic extremes influenced the magnitude of leaching. Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization varied with soil nutrient status and sorption properties, and leaching from the low-nutrient soil was more sensitive to environmental factors.
Günter Hempel, Paul Sotta, Didier R. Long, and Kay Saalwächter
Magn. Reson., 2, 589–606, https://doi.org/10.5194/mr-2-589-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/mr-2-589-2021, 2021
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We develop an exact analytical description of spinning sideband intensities in magic-angle spinning NMR, e.g., for 13C CSA. This can be used in spectral fitting to obtain tensor parameters and plays out its advantage in the analysis of orientation effects in non-isotropic samples. We present an improved approach to process data obtained with the simple syncMAS experiment, which is powerful but not very popular due to the as yet not very transparent and difficult data analysis.
Sophie F. von Fromm, Alison M. Hoyt, Markus Lange, Gifty E. Acquah, Ermias Aynekulu, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Stephan M. Haefele, Steve P. McGrath, Keith D. Shepherd, Andrew M. Sila, Johan Six, Erick K. Towett, Susan E. Trumbore, Tor-G. Vågen, Elvis Weullow, Leigh A. Winowiecki, and Sebastian Doetterl
SOIL, 7, 305–332, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-305-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-305-2021, 2021
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We investigated various soil and climate properties that influence soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our findings indicate that climate and geochemistry are equally important for explaining SOC variations. The key SOC-controlling factors are broadly similar to those for temperate regions, despite differences in soil development history between the two regions.
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Short summary
A large amount of organic carbon (OC) in soil is protected against decay by bonding to minerals. We studied the release of mineral-bonded OC by NaF–NaOH extraction and H2O2 oxidation. Unexpectedly, extraction and oxidation removed mineral-bonded OC at roughly constant portions and of similar age distributions, irrespective of mineral composition, land use, and soil depth. The results suggest uniform modes of interactions between OC and minerals across soils in quasi-steady state with inputs.
A large amount of organic carbon (OC) in soil is protected against decay by bonding to minerals....
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