Study
The Microbial Efficiency-Matrix Stabilization (MEMS) framework integrates plant litter decomposition with soil organic matter stabilization: do labile plant inputs form stable soil organic matter?
Cotrufo, M. F.; Wallenstein, M. D.; Boot, C. M.; Denef, K.; Paul, E.
Global Change Biology, 2013
A synthesis proposing, and testing against existing isotope and fractionation data, that the stable carbon in soil derives mainly from the bodies and by-products of the microbes that ate the litter, rather than from the tough plant compounds that resisted being eaten.
- Studied in
- Fungi, Bacteria
- Sample size
- synthesis of litter-decomposition and soil-carbon studies
The easily digested parts of litter — sugars and simple compounds — are converted efficiently into microbial tissue, and it is that microbial material which ends up bound to mineral surfaces and persisting. The resistant compounds decompose slowly but contribute proportionately less to the long-lived fraction.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Stable soil organic matter is built largely from microbial products, so the efficiency with which microbes use litter, rather than the recalcitrance of the litter itself, governs how much carbon a soil retains.
How NatureHQ reads it
A genuine reversal of the intuitive picture, and the reason NatureHQ does not say that lignin becomes soil carbon. The old story — hard-to-digest compounds survive and accumulate as humus — is largely wrong. What accumulates is mostly dead microbes, protected by sticking to mineral particles. The framework is still argued over, and NatureHQ presents it as the current best account rather than as settled, but the direction of travel in the field is clear.
- A framework paper: it organises and reinterprets existing evidence rather than testing a new prediction.
- The relative contribution of microbial versus plant residues varies with soil mineralogy and is still debated.
- Little of the underlying data comes from wood, as opposed to leaf litter.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
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Published by: Wiley journalsPublished in a Wiley journal.
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