Cycling downwards – dissolved organic matter in soils

Dissolved organic matter has been recognized as mobile, thus crucial to translocation of metals, pollutants but also of nutrients in soil. We present a conceptual model of the vertical movement of dissolved organic matter with soil water, which deviates from the view of a chromatographic stripping along the flow path. It assumes temporal immobilization (sorptive or by co-precipitation), followed by microbial processing, and re-release (by desorption or dissolution) into soil water of altered compounds. The proposed scheme explains well depth trends in age and composition of dissolved organic matter as well as of solid-phase organic matter in soil. It resolves the paradox of soil organic matter being oldest in the youngest part of the soil profile – the deep mineral subsoil.

► Improved conceptual model of DOM movement in soil.
► Physico-chemical immobilization by sorption and/or co-precipitation.
► Microbial processing of sorbed/co-precipitated matter, subsequent re-release (desorption/dissolution) of altered compounds.
► DOM mirrors soil organic matter.
► Model explains changes in soil organic matter properties with depth.