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Soil has a crucial function in the global carbon cycle, with the global soil carbon pool estimated to be 2,500 gigatons. This is 3.3 times the amount of the atmospheric pool at 750 gigatons and 4.5 times the biotic pool at 560 gigatons.
Soil carbon sequestration is a major property of the soil, also considered as an ecosystem service. [24] Only when it becomes stable and acquires its multi-century permanence, mostly via multiple interactions with the soil matrix , molecular soil humus should be considered to be of significance in removing the atmosphere's current carbon ...
Many immobile organisms survive in this way, using developed gills or tentacles to filter the water to take in food, a process known as filter feeding. Another more widely used method of feeding, which also incorporates filter feeding, is a system where an organism secretes mucus to catch the detritus in lumps, and then carries these to its ...
The decomposition of food, either plant or animal, called spoilage in this context, is an important field of study within food science. Food decomposition can be slowed down by conservation. The spoilage of meat occurs, if the meat is untreated, in a matter of hours or days and results in the meat becoming unappetizing, poisonous or infectious.
Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent nutrients are added to the top layer of soil, commonly known as the litter layer or O horizon ("O ...
In economic geology, the term humate refers to geological materials, such as weathered coal beds (leonardite), mudrock, or pore material in sandstones, that are rich in humic acids. Humate has been mined from the Fruitland Formation of New Mexico for use as a soil amendment since the 1970s, with nearly 60,000 metric tons produced by 2016. [ 39 ]
Only fungi produce the enzymes necessary to decompose lignin, a chemically complex substance found in wood. A decaying tree trunk in Canada's boreal forest. Decaying wood fills an important ecological niche, providing habitat and shelter, and returning important nutrients to the soil after undergoing decomposition. Detritivore nutrient cycling ...
Organic matter, organic material, or natural organic matter refers to the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come from the feces and remains of organisms such as plants and animals . [ 1 ]