Journal
ISOTOPES IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH STUDIES
Volume 41, Issue 2, Pages 135-140Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/10256010412331314265
Keywords
amino acids; amino sugars; carbon-13; carbon dioxide; fatty acids; microorganisms; soil organic matter
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In general, soils without the vegetation growing on them are regarded as sources of CO2. However, there are indications that CO2 is also fixed by soil microorganisms. Although this process is not significant from a quantitative point of view, it may change the isotopic composition of soil organic matter. Therefore, we conducted an incubation study with soil and C-13-labeled CO2 to investigate this process. We found that the label was transferred from CO2 into organic compounds in soil. At the end of a 61-day incubation period, 1.3 mu mol C g(-1) soil, corresponding to similar to 0.08% of the soil organic carbon, had been fixed. CO2 may, therefore, be an additional source of soil organic carbon. Compound-specific analysis of amino sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids indicated that the label is incorporated into microbial, mainly bacterial, biomass. All groups of microorganisms were involved in the assimilation of CO2, but the relatively high enrichment of mono-unsaturated and mid-chain branched fatty acids indicates that gram negative bacteria and actinomycetes may be slightly more important in this process than other groups of microorganisms.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available