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In the accompanying Concept paper, [ 1 ] Markus Kleber has opened an interesting discussion on how the community of soil scientists has confounded the characterisation of soil organic matter (SOM). He clearly demonstrates that different classifications and definitions for recalcitrance are commonly used to characterise SOM, and shows how the different terms ‘recalcitrance’, ‘decomposition’, ‘turnover’, ‘stability’ and ‘SOM quality’ are often confused. The paper of Markus Kleber [ 1 ] is a valuable contribution to the further exploration of this subject; here, we take the opportunity to comment on that paper by elaborating on some of the statements it contains. We whole-heartedly agree with his statement ‘much confusion may be due to the fact that “recalcitrant carbon” is often used as a synonym for “old” carbon, neglecting that old age can be achieved through many other mechanisms than “inherent chemical recalcitrance”’. There is consensus that selective preservation of recalcitrant SOM is not responsible for long-term stabilisation and is not the only mechanism that determines stability of SOM. [ 2 – 4 ] For that reason, it is not surprising that neither a single parameter for recalcitrance appeared to be a suitable predictor for the decomposability in fig.
Environmental Chemistry – CSIRO Publishing
Published: Aug 20, 2010
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