Structural equation modeling reveals iron (hydr)oxides as a strong mediator of N mineralization in California agricultural soils

- A high degree of multicollinearity existed between many of the physiochemical parameters
- Poorly-crystalline iron (Feo) and pH were consistently strong driver of net N mineralization rate.
- The influence of Feo and pH exceeded total C and climatic variables, but was less than total N.
- The inclusion of pedogenic iron fractions improved explained variance over models without iron.