Soil contains almost twice as much carbon (C) as the atmosphere and 5-15% of soil C is stored in a form of particulate organic matter (POM). Particulate organic matter C is regarded as one of the most labile components of the soil C, such that can be easily lost under right environmental settings. Conceptually, micro-environmental conditions are understood to be responsible for protection of so...

[1] Riparian ecosystems are characterized by spatial and temporal heterogeneity in physical and biological attributes, with consequences for nutrient cycling. We investigated the responses of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling processes to the hydrogeomorphic template in the riparian zone of the San Pedro River, Arizona, a large (catchment area !11,500 km), free-flowing, semiarid river. Over a...

Soils play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle; they represent a carbon reservoir larger than the atmosphere, they are the site of a number of key carbon transformations (e.g. mineralization and humification), and contain a number of unique carbon pools (e.g. plant litter, humic substances, dissolved organic matter, etc.). Land disturbance associated with surface coal mining results in co...

Stabilization of organic matter in soil is important for natural ecosystem to sequestrate carbon and mitigate greenhouse gas emission. It is largely unknown what factors govern the preservation of organic carbon in soil, casting shadow on predicting the response of soil to climate change. Iron oxide was suggested as an important mineral preserving soil organic carbon. However, ferric minerals a...

The ‘priming effect’, in which addition of labile carbon and/or nutrients changes remineralization rates of recalcitrant organic matter, has been intensively studied in soils, but is less well-documented in aquatic systems. We investigated the extent to which additions of nutrients or labile organic carbon could influence remineralization rates of microbiallydegraded, recalcitrant C-labeled phy...

The increased land-use change (LUC) from native lands to other land use at the Conoor region of western ghats in Tamil Nadu has severely declined soil carbon concentration. Therefore quantify this decline, Carbon Management Index (CMI) was worked out under major uses {(Forest (FOR), cropland (CRP), tea plantation (TEA)} using total organic (TOC) and pools varying degrees lability {a) NLC (non-l...

The long-term burial of organic carbon in sediments results in the net accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, thereby mediating the redox state of the Earth's biosphere and atmosphere. Sediment microbial activity plays a major role in determining whether particulate organic carbon is recycled or buried. A diverse consortium of microorganisms that hydrolyze, ferment, and terminally oxidize or...