A unified theory for organic matter accumulation

Zakem, Emily J.; Cael, B. B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1317-5718; Levine, Naomi M.. 2021 A unified theory for organic matter accumulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (6), e2016896118. 10.1073/pnas.2016896118

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016896118

Abstract/Summary

Organic matter constitutes a key reservoir in global elemental cycles. However, our understanding of the dynamics of organic matter and its accumulation remains incomplete. Seemingly disparate hypotheses have been proposed to explain organic matter accumulation: the slow degradation of intrinsically recalcitrant substrates, the depletion to concentrations that inhibit microbial consumption, and a dependency on the consumption capabilities of nearby microbial populations. Here, using a mechanistic model, we develop a theoretical framework that explains how organic matter predictably accumulates in natural environments due to biochemical, ecological, and environmental factors. Our framework subsumes the previous hypotheses. Changes in the microbial community or the environment can move a class of organic matter from a state of functional recalcitrance to a state of depletion by microbial consumers. The model explains the vertical profile of dissolved organic carbon in the ocean and connects microbial activity at subannual timescales to organic matter turnover at millennial timescales. The threshold behavior of the model implies that organic matter accumulation may respond nonlinearly to changes in temperature and other factors, providing hypotheses for the observed correlations between organic carbon reservoirs and temperature in past earth climates.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1073/pnas.2016896118
ISSN:	0027-8424
Date made live:	02 Mar 2021 14:54 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529805

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1073/pnas.2016896118

ISSN:

0027-8424

Date made live:

02 Mar 2021 14:54 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529805