Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Soil heterogeneity in lumped mineralization-immobilization models

Publication ,  Journal Article
Manzoni, S; Porporato, A; Schimel, JP
Published in: Soil Biology and Biochemistry
May 1, 2008

The heterogeneous distribution of nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor patches in soils strongly affects the intensity of nitrogen cycling between organic and inorganic soil compartments. In highly heterogeneous soils, observation at the core scale of large gross mineralization and immobilization fluxes has led to the development of the mineralization-immobilization turnover (MIT) modeling scheme, which maintains that all nitrogen decomposed from organic compounds is mineralized before assimilation by the microbial biomass. This hypothesis, however, neglects the endogenous nature of the ammonification reactions at the microscopic scale, where organic N is directly assimilated by the decomposers and only the surplus is released as ammonium, as better described by the direct (DIR) pathway. Here we hypothesize that, at the micro-scale, mineralization behaves according to the DIR pathway and analyze a simple two-compartment model to simulate a heterogeneous soil with two fractions of different chemical composition (i.e., C-to-N ratio) and quality (i.e., decomposition rate). We derive the effective parameters of the aggregated model as a function of micro-scale features, and show that it represents a generalization of the parallel (PAR) scheme, which in its original form was introduced to combine DIR and MIT pathways. This physically based new parameterization improves current lumped N mineralization models. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

DOI

ISSN

0038-0717

Publication Date

May 1, 2008

Volume

40

Issue

5

Start / End Page

1137 / 1148

Related Subject Headings

  • Agronomy & Agriculture
  • 4106 Soil sciences
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
  • 06 Biological Sciences
  • 05 Environmental Sciences
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Manzoni, S., Porporato, A., & Schimel, J. P. (2008). Soil heterogeneity in lumped mineralization-immobilization models. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 40(5), 1137–1148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.12.006
Manzoni, S., A. Porporato, and J. P. Schimel. “Soil heterogeneity in lumped mineralization-immobilization models.” Soil Biology and Biochemistry 40, no. 5 (May 1, 2008): 1137–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.12.006.
Manzoni S, Porporato A, Schimel JP. Soil heterogeneity in lumped mineralization-immobilization models. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 2008 May 1;40(5):1137–48.
Manzoni, S., et al. “Soil heterogeneity in lumped mineralization-immobilization models.” Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol. 40, no. 5, May 2008, pp. 1137–48. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.12.006.
Manzoni S, Porporato A, Schimel JP. Soil heterogeneity in lumped mineralization-immobilization models. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 2008 May 1;40(5):1137–1148.
Journal cover image

Published In

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

DOI

ISSN

0038-0717

Publication Date

May 1, 2008

Volume

40

Issue

5

Start / End Page

1137 / 1148

Related Subject Headings

  • Agronomy & Agriculture
  • 4106 Soil sciences
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
  • 06 Biological Sciences
  • 05 Environmental Sciences