Fluorescence spectroscopy: A sensitive tool for identifying land-use and climatic region effects on the characteristics of water-extractable soil organic matter

Fluorescence spectroscopy: A sensitive tool for identifying land-use and climatic region effects on the characteristics of water-extractable soil organic matter

Blog Article

Water-extractable organic matter (WEOM) is an indicator of active and labile pools of soil organic matter (SOM).Land-use is expected to have a major effect on SOM, yet the effects of different land-uses on WEOM are not well understood.Reported trends in the changes in water-extractable organic C (WEOC) concentrations following changes in land-use are inconsistent or even contradictory.

Fluorescent WEOM components, including whirlwind multi selector humic-like and proteinaceous substances, may be useful for elucidating long-term effects of different land-uses on WEOM content and composition.Therefore, the objectives of this research were (i) to characterize SOM and WEOM in soils from different climatic regions that were subjected to different land-uses and (ii) to compare the sensitivity of fluorescent components in WEOM to that of other SOM/WEOM attributes for evaluating the impact of land-use and climatic region on SOM.Two soil types from different climatic regions (Mediterranean and semi-arid) that were collected from land subjected to different uses (field crops, orchards and non-cultivated plots) and characterized for total soil organic C and total N.

The concentration of WEOC, UV babamonkey.net absorbance at 254 nm and excitation-emission matrices (EEMs) of fluorescence were determined in diluted solution extracts.Parallel-factor (PARAFAC) analysis was applied to identify meaningful fluorescent components of WEOM and quantify their presence.Most of the quantitative measures used for SOM and WEOM characterization demonstrated insignificant and/or inconsistent relationships with the type of land-use and climatic region.

However, EEM-PARAFAC-derived fluorescent components present in soil WEOM and, specifically, their relative fractions exhibited significant associations with the climatic region and type of land-use.These results may support the use of EEM-PARAFAC fluorescent components as indicators for the assessment of soil health.