Consequences of abiotic and biotic heterogeneity of forested landscapes on the soil organic matter pools and persistence

Soil organic matter (SOM) is an important reservoir of C. Its amount and persistency depend on environmental and biological factors which are very variable in time and space. The project objective is to study and analyze the influence of abiotic and biotic factors on the SOM pools in forest ecosystems. In addition, information regarding the spatial variability of dead and living SOM will be obtained. Since soil microorganisms play the key role in the transformation and allocation of SOM, determination of the activity and composition of microbial community will allow a better understanding of belowground processes. The knowledge bout the relations between SOM and factors is important to formulating C cycling models