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Carbon Storage and DNA Adsorption in Allophanic Soils and Paleosols

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Soil Carbon

Part of the book series: Progress in Soil Science ((PROSOIL))

Abstract

Andisols and andic paleosols dominated by the nanocrystalline mineral allophane sequester large amounts of carbon (C), attributable mainly to its chemical bonding with charged hydroxyl groups on the surface of allophane together with its physical protection in nanopores within and between allophane nanoaggregates. C near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectra for a New Zealand Andisol (Tirau series) showed that the organic matter (OM) mainly comprises quinonic, aromatic, aliphatic, and carboxylic C. In different buried horizons from several other Andisols, C contents varied but the C species were similar, attributable to pedogenic processes operating during developmental upbuilding, downward leaching, or both. The presence of OM in natural allophanic soils weakened the adsorption of DNA on clay; an adsorption isotherm experiment involving humic acid (HA) showed that HA-free synthetic allophane adsorbed seven times more DNA than HA-rich synthetic allophane. Phosphorus X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra for salmon-sperm DNA and DNA-clay complexes indicated that DNA was bound to the allophane clay through the phosphate group, but it is not clear if DNA was chemically bound to the surface of the allophane or to OM, or both. We plan more experiments to investigate interactions among DNA, allophane (natural and synthetic), and OM. Because DNA shows a high affinity to allophane, we are studying the potential to reconstruct late Quaternary palaeoenvironments by attempting to extract and characterise ancient DNA from allophanic paleosols.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Marsden Fund (10-UOW-056) through the Royal Society of New Zealand. We thank NSRRC, Taiwan, and especially Dr. Tsan-Yao Chen for technical instruction and support, Ling-Yun Jang for P XANES spectra for salmon-sperm DNA, Prof Shin-Ichiro Wada (Kyushu University) for advice on allophane synthesis, Dr. Emma Summers, Janine Ryburn, and Lynne Parker (Waikato University) for help with experiments, and Prof Kevin McSweeney (University of Wisconsin—Madison) for reviewing the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Waikato, 3105, Hamilton, 3240, New Zealand

    Yu-Tuan Huang, David J. Lowe & Louis A. Schipper

  2. School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

    G. Jock Churchman

  3. Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand

    Nicolas J. Rawlence

  4. Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

    Alan Cooper

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  1. Yu-Tuan Huang
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  2. David J. Lowe
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  3. G. Jock Churchman
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  4. Louis A. Schipper
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  5. Nicolas J. Rawlence
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  6. Alan Cooper
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Correspondence to Yu-Tuan Huang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Alfred E. Hartemink

  2. Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Kevin McSweeney

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Huang, YT., Lowe, D.J., Churchman, G.J., Schipper, L.A., Rawlence, N.J., Cooper, A. (2014). Carbon Storage and DNA Adsorption in Allophanic Soils and Paleosols. In: Hartemink, A., McSweeney, K. (eds) Soil Carbon. Progress in Soil Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04084-4_17

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