Review of the Changing Faces of Soil Organic Matter Research

Review
Soil organic matter accumulates when microbial decomposition occurs
at rates that are slower than those of the addition of organic matter
(Simonson, 1959; Collins & Kuehl, 2001). It is an extremely complex because
of the variety of its inputs (e.g., plant tissues, microorganisms, animals) and
their different stages of decomposition, (Chenu et. al., 2015). SOM is an
important source of nutrients for plants. With the exception of fertilizers, SOM
provides the largest pool of macronutrients with >95% of N and S and 20%–
75% of P found in SOM (Duxbury et al., 1989; Baldock and Nelson, 2000).
This research focused on examining the changing faces of soil organic
matter and how other research on carbon sequestration in agricultural soils
changed since 1990. Soil organic matter typically comprises just 1%–5% of
the soil mass but plays a critical role in soil health because it exerts a strong
effect on soil properties and function, (Hatten et. al., 2019). 

This research used paper questionnaires to gather the materials

needed to examine the changing faces of soil organic matter.

The goal of this research is to (1) examine new applications, (20 to

examine how the soil organic matter emphasis changed in agricultural soil
carbon sequestration research since 1990, and (3) to outline some recent
advances in soil organic matter modelling.

This research is important because it gives us insight to know that the

soil organic matter present to the soil will not stay the same. The organic
matter may sometimes increase and there would be a time that it may
reduced. But by knowing the changing factors of soil organic matter, we will
know to deal with this kind of situations. This research is chosen to develop
our understanding about the changing faces of soil organic matter.

The research papers about the soil organic matter has been published
and this researches rapidly grow in number of journals and papers. This
research papers that continually changing can affect the soil for the soil
became the experimental subject to determined the soil organic matter
present on it. Some papers that showed the association of soil organic matter
and climate, biodiversity, health and security began to appear. This research
papers gives us the knowledge that the soil organic matter present on the soil
can be healthy because of the climate and biodiversity. The more healthy soil,
the greater the health and security we may gain. This researches gives
important to understand soil organic matter dynamics and the accurate
modelling of soil. Also, this researches can totally affect the soil for whatever
research that can find useful for the soil we will going to adapt it.
The researchers began to research about the importance of carbon on
the soil and how it affect soil organic matter. Soil aggregates may provide an
important transient storage capacity for macronutrients and the size of
aggregate classes can influence nutrient availability. Studies have shown
greater mineralization of both C and N in macro-aggregate associated SOM
compared with microaggregates (Nimmo and Perkins, 2002; Trivedi et al.,
2015, 2017). These two processes may occur in distinct components of SOM
wherein the relatively labile fast-cycling POM serves as a source of nutrients
while the recalcitrant slow cycling mineral associated C serves as a long-term
storehouse of SOC (Wood et al., 2016; Lehmann and Kleber, 2015; Trivedi et
al., 2017). By understanding the uses of carbon and soil organic matter, we
can make an effective soil management practices for sustainable agriculture.

This research taught me that researching about the soil can’t be

focused on a single subject. It continue to grow and other researches began
to showed up about soil organic matter and climate, biodiversity, health and
security, soil fertility, and more. This research can be used to understand
more about the soil and its properties. With this research I began to
understand and gain some insights on why is soil organic matter is important.
This research also taught me that the old and new soil organic matter model
can be used to meet the challenges that face by the humanity.

Honeylynne S. Banaag
BSA 2-K