Carbon mineralisation in soil adjacent to plant residues of contrasting biochemical quality

A fraction of the C of residues incorporated into soil diffuses into the adjacent soil where it is eventually mineralised by microorganisms. Our aim was to quantify the contribution of this adjacent soil to the overall mineralisation of residue-C. For this, we incorporated two different residues labelled with 13C, with contrasting biochemical characteristics, namely mature wheat straw and young rye leaves, in soil cores. When 15% mineralisation of residue-C was measured for both residues, we separated a particulate fraction (the residues), the adjacent soil (4–5 mm thick) and a distant soil fraction, and incubated them separately for 5 h. We found that 76% of the mineralised wheat straw-C came from the particulate fraction and 23% from the soil adjacent to the residues. For rye leaves, 67% of the evolved CO2 came from the particulate fraction and 33% from the adjacent soil. It showed that the adjacent soil had a significant role in the mineralisation of carbon from the residues, even if the main source of residue-derived CO2 was the particulate fraction itself. The functional importance of the soil adjacent to the residues increased with the amount of soluble organic compounds that had been leached from the residue into the adjacent soil, suggesting a strong interaction between the initial quality of the crop residue and the resulting spatial heterogeneity of the decomposing microorganisms and C within the soil.