Articles | Volume 18, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-189-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-189-2021
Research article
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12 Jan 2021
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 12 Jan 2021

Millennial-age glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) in forested mineral soils: 14C-based evidence for stabilization of microbial necromass

Hannah Gies, Frank Hagedorn, Maarten Lupker, Daniel Montluçon, Negar Haghipour, Tessa Sophia van der Voort, and Timothy Ian Eglinton

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Cited articles

Ahrens, B., Braakhekke, M. C., Guggenberger, G., Schrumpf, M., and Reichstein, M.: Contribution of sorption, DOC transport and microbial interactions to the 14C age of a soil organic carbon profile: Insights from a calibrated process model, Soil Biol. Biochem., 88, 390–402, 2015. a
Amelung, W., Brodowski, S., Sandhage-Hofmann, A., and Bol, R.: Combining biomarker with stable isotope analyses for assessing the transformation and turnover of soil organic matter, Adv. Agron., 100, 155–250, 2008. a
Battin, T. J., Luyssaert, S., Kaplan, L. A., Aufdenkampe, A. K., Richter, A., and Tranvik, L. J.: The boundless carbon cycle, Nat. Geosci., 2, 598–600, 2009. a
Birkholz, A., Smittenberg, R. H., Hajdas, I., Wacker, L., and Bernasconi, S. M.: Isolation and compound specific radiocarbon dating of terrigenous branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs), Organic geochemistry, 60, 9–19, 2013. a, b, c, d, e
Blaga, C. I., Reichart, G.-J., Heiri, O., and Damsté, J. S. S.: Tetraether membrane lipid distributions in water-column particulate matter and sediments: a study of 47 European lakes along a north-south transect, J. Paleolimnol., 41, 523–540, 2009. a
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Understanding controls on the persistence of organic matter in soils is essential to constrain its role in the carbon cycle. Emerging concepts suggest that the soil carbon pool is predominantly comprised of stabilized microbial residues. To test this hypothesis we isolated microbial membrane lipids from two Swiss soil profiles and measured their radiocarbon age. We find that the ages of these compounds are in the range of millenia and thus provide evidence for stabilized microbial mass in soils.
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