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Title: Oxidation of soil organic carbon during an anoxic-oxic transition

Journal Article · · Geoderma
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [2];  [6];  [2];  [7];  [8];  [4];  [2]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
  2. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
  3. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
  4. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States)
  5. Davidson Academy of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
  6. Desert Research Inst. (DRI), Reno, NV (United States); Univ. of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA (United States)
  7. Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
  8. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

Redox reactions of iron (Fe) can play an important role in controlling the stability and transformation of organic carbon (OC) in soils. However, there is limited knowledge about the dynamics of Fe and OC in soils during anoxic-oxic transitions, which are common in temperate and tropical biomes. In this study, we investigated the fate and transformation of Fe and OC during a 5-day oxic incubation of four pre-reduced (8 days anoxic) forest soils. Up to 3.7% of total OC in the pre-reduced soils was oxidized to CO2, in conjunction with the oxidation of 31 –84% of the extractable Fe(II). OC oxidation in pre-reduced soils was lower than non-reducedcontrol soils, indicating that recently anoxically-incubated soils support lower OC metabolism upon re-oxidation than consistently oxic soils. Oxic OC oxidation was negatively correlated with the fraction of Fe-bound OC and also the fraction of short-range-ordered (SRO) Fe oxides. These results suggest that association with Fe oxides—especially SRO Fe oxides—can inhibit the availability of OC for oxidation. However, the difference between the oxidation of OC in pre40 reduced soils and consistently oxic controls could not be linked to the moderate changes in the Fe mineral composition during the anoxic-oxic transition, indicating the importance of longer term OC association with Fe oxides, as well as other processes, in regulating the oxidation of OC during the redox fluctuations. OC association with Fe oxides should be considered during simulations of biogeochemical cycling of OC in soils during the redox fluctuations, for which other processes such as the anoxic transformation of OC and response of the microbial community also need to be incorporated.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDA
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; SC0014275
OSTI ID:
1755197
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1639138
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-154575
Journal Information:
Geoderma, Vol. 377; ISSN 0016-7061
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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