Development and application of molecular fingerprints for the study of soil biogeochemical processes

Approximately two-thirds of the terrestrial carbon in the world resides in
soil organic matter and soils are both a source and a sink for atmospheric
carbon dioxide. Determining stocks of labile and refractory carbon is
challenging, however necessary for understanding global carbon fluxes,
future ecological responses to climate change, environmental reactivity,
and contaminant fate and transport. Organic matter is ubiquitous in air,
water, soils and sediments however, is considered to be "molecularly
uncharacterized" and is often treated as a "black box" in climate change and
contaminant fate and transport models. The application of molecular markers or
biomarkers is routinely used in marine and organic geochemistry but has not
yet been fully explored for studying soil processes. In addition, the onset
of novel, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methods in cooperation with the
application of conventional NMR methods, has enabled a detailed, structural
investigation of soil organic matter. These techniques will be introduced
and their application to study biogeochemical processes in soil will be
presented in detail. This presentation will summarize how molecular-level
data can provide insight into soil organic matter composition, turnover,
and potential responses to climate change and how future advancements in
molecular-level technology can enhance the fundamental understanding of
environmental processes.