No detectable upper limit of mineral‐associated organic carbon in temperate agricultural soils
Open accessAbstract
Soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration is a promising climate change mitigation option. In this context, the formation of the relatively long‐lived mineral‐associated organic carbon (MAOC) is key. To date, soils are considered to be limited in their ability to accumulate MAOC, mainly by the amount of clay and silt particles present. Using the comprehensive German Agricultural Soil Inventory, we selected 189 samples with a wide range of SOC (5–118 g kg −1 ) and clay contents (30–770 g kg −1 ) to test whether there is a detectable upper limit of MAOC content. We found that the proportion of MAOC was surprisingly stable for soils under cropland and grassland use across the whole range of bulk SOC contents. Soil texture influenced the slope of the relationship between bulk SOC and MAOC, but no upper limit was observed in any texture class. Also, C content in the fine fraction (g C kg −1 fraction) was negatively correlated to fine fraction content (g kg −1 bulk soil). Both findings challenge the notion that MAOC accumulation is limited by soil fine fraction content per se.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The assumption on finiteness of soil C-sequestration is disputed.
“The assumption on finiteness of soil C-sequestration is also disputed, which is crucial in determining its long-term potential of C-sequestration52.”
From Risk to rely on soil carbon sequestration to offset global ruminant emissions (2023) · cites this paper as [52]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Stabilization mechanisms of soil organic matter: Implications for C-saturation of soils
Six, J., Conant, R. T., Paul, E. A., & Paustian, K. (2002) · Plant and Soil · doi:10.1023/a:1016125726789 · Cited by 4,633 · see citing works
Negative emissions—Part 2: Costs, potentials and side effects
Fuss, S., Lamb, W. F., Callaghan, M. W., Hilaire, J., Creutzig, F., Amann, T., Beringer, T., de Oliveira Garcia, W., Hartmann, J., Khanna, T., et al. (2018) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aabf9f · Cited by 1,525 · see citing works
Soil carbon debt of 12,000 years of human land use
Sanderman, J., Hengl, T., & Fiske, G. J. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1706103114 · Cited by 1,495 · see citing works
Global stocks and capacity of mineral-associated soil organic carbon
Georgiou, K., Jackson, R. B., Vindušková, O., Abramoff, R. Z., Ahlström, A., Feng, W., Harden, J. W., Pellegrini, A. F. A., Polley, H. W., Soong, J. L., et al. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31540-9 · Cited by 979 · see citing works
Estimating and mapping the carbon saturation deficit of French agricultural topsoils
Angers, D. A., Arrouays, D., Saby, N. P. A., & Walter, C. (2011) · Soil Use and Management · doi:10.1111/j.1475-2743.2011.00366.x · Cited by 171 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 26
- S Abramoff, R. Z., Georgiou, K., Guenet, B., Torn, M. S., Huang, Y., Zhang, H., Feng, W., Jagadamma, S., Kaiser, K., Kothawala, D., & Mayes, M. A. (2021). How much carbon can be added to soil by sorption? Biogeochemistry, 152(2), 127-142.
- Barton, K., & Barton, M. K. (2015). Package 'mumin'. Version, 1(18), 439.
- Beare, M., McNeill, S., Curtin, D., Parfitt, R., Jones, H., Dodd, M., & Sharp, J. (2014). Estimating the organic carbon stabilisation ca- pacity and saturation deficit of soils: A New Zealand case study. Biogeochemistry, 120(1), 71-87.
- Carter, M. R. (2002). Soil quality for sustainable land management: Organic matter and aggregation interactions that maintain soil functions. Agronomy Journal, 94(1), 38-47.
- Cotrufo, M. F., Ranalli, M. G., Haddix, M. L., Six, J., & Lugato, E. (2019). Soil carbon storage informed by particulate and mineral-associated organic matter. Nature Geoscience, 12(12), 989-994.
- Feng, W., Xu, M., Fan, M., Malhi, S., Schoenau, J., Six, J., & Plante, A. (2014). Testing for soil carbon saturation behavior in agricultural soils receiving long-term manure amendments. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 94(3), 281-294.
- Guenet, B., Camino-Serrano, M., Ciais, P., Tifafi, M., Maignan, F., Soong, J. L., & Janssens, I. A. (2018). Impact of priming on global soil carbon stocks. Global Change Biology, 24(5), 1873-1883.
- Hassink, J. (1994). Effects of soil texture and grassland management on soil organic C and N and rates of C and N mineralization. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 26(9), 1221-1231.
- Hassink, J. (1997). The capacity of soils to preserve organic C and N by their association with clay and silt particles. Plant and Soil, 191(1), 77-87.
- Jacobs, A., Poeplau, C., Weiser, C., Fahrion-Nitschke, A., & Don, A. (2020). Exports and inputs of organic carbon on agricultural soils in Germany. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 118(3), 249-271.
- Jobbágy, E. G., & Jackson, R. B. (2000). The vertical distribution of soil organic carbon and its relation to climate and vegetation. Ecological Applications, 10(2), 423-436.
- Kleber, M., Sollins, P., & Sutton, R. (2007). A conceptual model of organo-mineral interactions in soils: Self-assembly of organic molecular fragments into zonal structures on mineral surfaces. Biogeochemistry, 85(1), 9-24.
- Lavallee, J. M., Soong, J. L., & Cotrufo, M. F. (2020). Conceptualizing soil organic matter into particulate and mineral-associated forms to address global change in the 21st century. Global Change Biology, 26(1), 261-273.
- Liang, C., Schimel, J. P., & Jastrow, J. D. (2017). The importance of anabolism in microbial control over soil carbon storage. Nature Microbiology, 2(8), 1-6.
- Matus, F. J. (2021). Fine silt and clay content is the main factor defining maximal C and N accumulations in soils: A meta-analysis. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-17.
- Poeplau, C., Jacobs, A., Don, A., Vos, C., Schneider, F., Wittnebel, M., Tiemeyer, B., Heidkamp, A., Prietz, R., & Flessa, H. (2020). Stocks of organic carbon in German agricultural soils-Key results of the first comprehensive inventory. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 183(6), 665-681.
- Rasmussen, C., Heckman, K., Wieder, W. R., Keiluweit, M., Lawrence, C. R., Berhe, A. A., Blankinship, J. C., Crow, S. E., Druhan, J. L., Hicks Pries, C. E., & Marin-Spiotta, E. (2018). Beyond clay: Towards an improved set of variables for predicting soil organic matter content. Biogeochemistry, 137(3), 297-306.
- Ribeiro, R. P., & Moniz, N. (2020). Imbalanced regression and extreme value prediction. Machine Learning, 109(9), 1803-1835.
- Schneider, F., Amelung, W., & Don, A. (2021). Origin of carbon in agricul- tural soil profiles deduced from depth gradients of C:N ratios, car- bon fractions, δ 13 C and δ 15 N values. Plant and Soil, 460(1), 123-148.
- Schweizer, S. A. (2022). Perspectives from the Fritz-Scheffer Awardee 2021: Soil organic matter storage and functions determined by patchy and piled-up arrangements at the microscale. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 185(6), 694-706.
- Schweizer, S. A., Mueller, C. W., Höschen, C., Ivanov, P., & Kögel-Knabner, I. (2021). The role of clay content and mineral surface area for soil organic carbon storage in an arable toposequence. Biogeochemistry, 156(3), 401-420.
- Springob, G., & Kirchmann, H. (2010). Ratios of carbon to nitrogen quan- tify non-texture-stabilized organic carbon in sandy soils. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 173(1), 16-18.
- Stewart, C. E., Plante, A. F., Paustian, K., Conant, R. T., & Six, J. (2008). Soil carbon saturation: Linking concept and measurable carbon pools. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 72(2), 379-392.
- Vogel, C., Mueller, C. W., Höschen, C., Buegger, F., Heister, K., Schulz, S., Schloter, M., & Kögel-Knabner, I. (2014). Submicron structures provide preferential spots for carbon and nitrogen sequestration in soils. Nature Communications, 5(1), 1-7.
- von Lützow, M., Kögel-Knabner, I., Ekschmitt, K., Flessa, H., Guggenberger, G., Matzner, E., & Marschner, B. (2007). SOM fractionation methods: Relevance to functional pools and to stabili- zation mechanisms. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 39(9), 2183-2207.
- Vos, C., Jaconi, A., Jacobs, A., & Don, A. (2018). Hot regions of labile and stable soil organic carbon in Germany-Spatial variability and driv- ing factors. The Soil, 4(2), 153-167.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Risk to rely on soil carbon sequestration to offset global ruminant emissions
Wang, Y., de Boer, I. J. M., Persson, U. M., Ripoll-Bosch, R., Cederberg, C., Gerber, P. J., Smith, P., & van Middelaar, C. E. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-023-43452-3 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
- Authors
- Begill, N., Don, A., & Poeplau, C.
- Affiliations
- Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Poeplau, Christopher
- Venue
- Global Change Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2023-06-04
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 16
- Pages
- 4662-4669
- ISSN
- 1354-1013 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2486
- OpenAlex
- W4379375588
- Cited by
- 201
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 66 · 2025: 59 · 2024: 61 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 29.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Global Change Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OpenAgrar (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil erosion and sediment transport
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Soil Geostatistics and Mapping
- Keywords
- mineral-associated organic carbon, soil organic carbon sequestration, clay content, soil texture, fine soil fraction, agricultural soils, grassland soils
- MeSH terms
- Clay, Agriculture, Carbon, Minerals, Soil, Carbon Sequestration
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
