Modelling Soil Organic Matter Dynamics – Global Challenges - Sustainable Management of Soil Organic Matter - page 85

Fig. 2.6.1. Chemical composition as seen by 13 C NMR of whole soil and organic matter fractions
for a clay texture arable soil from the UK.

enriched. Thus we added C 4 plant material (maize) at approximately − 12‰

13 C labelled with 15 N to a C 3 soil at approximately

26‰ 13 C.
Figure 2.6.2 shows an example of the change in the

−

13 C signal of
the solid fractions defined by our protocol over a period of ~1 year after
incorporation of maize material in pots (unplanted). The disappearance
of maize-derived C from the free fraction due to decomposition was
accompanied by a small, but detectable, increase of maize-derived material

δ