challenged.

Studies on organic forest-floor horizons

indicated that the contribution of aromatic carbon
remained constant throughout the soil profile.[2]
The high contribution of aromatic compounds to
organic matter of some soils was related to the
presence of substantial amounts of charcoal produced
by vegetation fires.[3] Nitrogen, which had long been
suspected to be of stable heterocyclic nature in soils,
was shown to be mainly amide N, derived most probably
from proteins.[4] With those results, the nature of
organic matter as a mixture of macromolecular humic
substances was questioned. It was shown that instead
of macromolecules, substances with lower molecular
weight are more likely to survive in soil. For example,
studies with analytical pyrolysis showed that polysaccharides
and proteins may have a much longer
residence time in soils than molecules derived from
lignin or other macromolecular substances.[5] From
these findings, a new theory emerged after which the