Journal article

Publication year: 2005

Pages: 1033-1041

Journal: Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Volume number: 37

Issue number: 6

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2004.10.018

Publisher: Elsevier

Abstract: 

Fatty acids as major compounds of soil lipids may affect many soil
properties, but the input and turnover rates in soil are largely
unknown. The objective of this study was to identify and quantify fatty
acids in soils as a result of input from primary sources such as plant
residues, farmyard manure and soil organisms, and to evaluate the
corresponding turnover- and stabilization processes. The concentrations
of n-C_10:0 to n-C_34:0 fatty
acids were determined in the Ap horizon of a Phaeozem with long-term
cropping of rye and maize and the treatments ‘Unfertilized’ (‘U’) and
fertilized with ‘Farmyard manure’ (‘FYM’). The most important primary
sources of fatty acids such as rye and maize stubble and roots, soil
micro- and mesofauna, and the applied FYM were also investigated. The
quantification of fatty acids by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
(GC/MS) showed that long-term FYM application led to larger
concentrations of n-alkyl fatty acids in the plots grown with rye (‘U’: 48.1 μg g⁻¹, ‘FYM’: 57.7 μg g⁻¹, **P≤0.01, n=3) and maize (‘U’: 17.0 μg g⁻¹, ‘FYM’: 23.4 μg g⁻¹, ***P≤0.001, n=3). The observed bimodal fatty acid distribution in soils from n-C_10:0 to n-C_21:0 and from n-C_21:0 to n-C_34:0 with a predominance at n-C_16:0 and at n-C_28:0
was apparently due to input from crop residues, soil organisms and FYM.
The short-chain lengths may have originated from the investigated
primary sources. The major contributors to the long-chain lengths, with a
maximum at n-C_28:0, were rye stubble and FYM. A
change in mono-culture from rye to maize, 38 years prior to sampling,
led to a decrease in fatty acid concentrations by factors of about 2.8
(‘U’) and 2.5 (‘FYM’). Therefore, rye-derived fatty acids and soil
tillage had a larger impact on fatty acid pools than the input of
primary organic matter. The changes in fatty acid distributions and
pools under the consideration of the quantified input of primary organic
matter led to the conclusion that the short-chained fatty acids were
more rapidly decomposed than the long-chains.

Harvard Citation style: Jandl, G., Leinweber, P., Schulten, H. and Ekschmitt, K. (2005) Contribution of primary organic matter to the fatty acid pool in agricultural soils, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 37(6), pp. 1033-1041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2004.10.018

APA Citation style: Jandl, G., Leinweber, P., Schulten, H., & Ekschmitt, K. (2005). Contribution of primary organic matter to the fatty acid pool in agricultural soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 37(6), 1033-1041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2004.10.018