View article

Controversial conclusions from different studies suggest that the decomposition of old soil organic matter (SOM) is either more, less, or equally temperature sensitive compared to the younger SOM. Based on chemical kinetic theory, the decomposition of more recalcitrant materials should be more temperature sensitive, unless environmental factors limit decomposition. Here, we show results for boreal upland forest soils supporting this hypothesis. We detected differences in the temperature sensitivity 1) between soil layers varying in their decomposition stage and SOM quality, and 2) inside the layers during a 495 day laboratory incubation. Temperature sensitivity increased with increasing soil depth and decreasing SOM quality. In the organic layers, temperature sensitivity of decomposition increased during the early part of a 495 day laboratory incubation, after respiration rate and SOM quality had notably …