Biological Mineralization of Organic Matter in the Modern Virgin and Plowed Chernozems, Buried Chernozems, and Fossil Chernozems

摘要

The phenomenon of mineralization (biological mineralization) of organic matter in chernozems hasbeen studied. A decrease in the content of C org with time can be considered an index of the organic matter mineralization.It is suggested that the humus horizons of modern chernozems contain the pools of organic matterof different ages: easily decomposable organic matter, labile biologically active humus, stable biologicallyactive humus, and relatively inert humus. The composition and mean residence times of these pools and their contribution to the total organic matter content have been estimated. The particular types of the biological mineralization have been determined on the basis of the comparison between the velocities of mineralization (M) and humification (H) processes: total unidirectional mineralization (MH), equilibrium mineralization (M ~ H), nonequilibrium mineralization (M>