Determining soil organic matter quality under anaerobic conditions in arctic and subarctic soils

The measure for SOM quality was developed by incubating a suite of arctic and subarctic soils under SOM limiting conditions. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis was used to determine which components of SOM contributed to high respiration rates. The SOM quality of a given soil could then be determined based on the relative abundance of components known to contribute to high respiration rates. The model developed from this relationship was then applied to soil samples taken from the Smith Lake methane flux site at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in order to estimate the SOM quality from soils in this area.