LTREB: Long-term Detrital Controls on Soil Organic Matter Stabilization

土壤有机质（SOM）的碳含量比植物生物量和大气的碳含量总和还要多。 尽管其在全球生命支持系统中的重要作用，生物，化学和物理过程调节SOM积累，稳定和营业额之间的相互作用知之甚少。 DIRT（碎屑输入和去除处理）实验，开始于1997年在H.J.安德鲁斯森林，是一个几十年的实验，操纵植物凋落物输入到西部针叶林的大地块。 这项实验旨在解决这样的问题：是什么控制了森林土壤中碳的长期储存？ 有机质的哪些化学和物理组分最稳定？ 增加碎屑的输入能增加土壤碳储量吗？还是最大储量完全取决于气候和土壤矿物学？ 通过跟踪DIRT地块中土壤碳在未来几十年的变化，我们将直接解决这些长期问题。DIRT实验的数十年实验性质非常适合探索植物碎屑质量和数量在确定SOM积累中的作用，这在当前生态系统模型中是一个重要的未知因素。 此外，本研究的重点是本科荣誉学生的研究训练，这个实验将被纳入一个荣誉生态学课程要求的所有荣誉环境科学学生在俄勒冈州州立大学。 这项实验的数据和土壤都将通过Andrews LTER网站提供给地球仪的研究人员。 这项实验将在未来几十年内提供给研究人员、学生和气候建模者。

Soil organic matter (SOM) contains more carbon than plant biomass and the atmosphere combined. Despite its important role in the global life support system, interactions among biological, chemical, and physical processes regulating SOM accumulation, stabilization, and turnover are poorly understood. The DIRT (Detrital Inputs and Removal Treatments) experiment, started at the H.J. Andrews Forest in 1997, is a multi-decade experiment that manipulates plant-litter inputs to large plots in a western coniferous forest. This experiment is designed to address such questions as: what controls the long-term storage of carbon in forest soils? What chemical and physical fractions of SOM are most stable? Can added inputs of detritus increase soil carbon storage, or is maximum storage determined exclusively by climate and soil mineralogy? By following changes in soil carbon in the DIRT plots over the next few decades, we will address these long-term questions directly.The multi-decade, experimental nature of the DIRT experiment is uniquely suited to explore the role of plant detrital quality and quantity in determining SOM accumulation, which is a significant unknown factor in current ecosystem models. In addition, this research focuses on research training of undergraduate Honors students, and this experiment will be incorporated into an Honors Ecology course required of all Honors Environmental Science students at Oregon State University. Both data and soils from this experiment will be made available to researchers across the globe through the Andrews LTER web site. This experiment will be available to researchers, students and climate modelers for decades to come.