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Soil organic matter extraction, fractionation, structure and effects on soil structure

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The Role of Organic Matter in Modern Agriculture

Part of the book series: Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences ((DPSS,volume 25))

Abstract

Soil organic matter refers to the non-living heterogeneous mixture of organic components arising from the microbial and chemical transformations of organic debris (43). These transformations or the humification processes, give humus which has a degree of resistance to further degradation in the soil. The predominant components of humus are the humic substances, composed of fulvic acids, humic acids, and humin materials, and soil polysaccharides. Small amounts of protein-type or peptide compounds, nucleic acids, and lipids are invariably present in humus, but these, and especially the nucleic acids and protein-peptide structures which are not associated with and protected by the humic molecules, are thought to have a transient existence in the soil. Hence attention will focus here on the humic and polysaccharide substances as these are known to interact with soil inorganic colloids and are regarded as major contributors to the stabilization of naturally occurring aggregates in soil.

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  1. M. H. B. Hayes
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil and Water Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, 76100, Israël

    Y. Chen

  2. Department of Soils and Fertilizers, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, The Technion, Haifa, Israël

    Y. Avnimelech

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Hayes, M.H.B. (1986). Soil organic matter extraction, fractionation, structure and effects on soil structure. In: Chen, Y., Avnimelech, Y. (eds) The Role of Organic Matter in Modern Agriculture. Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4426-8_9

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