June 2022 issue

Volume 67, Issue 6

A relatively simple way to predict soil organic carbon (SOC) would help farmers, land managers, and researchers make informed decisions while saving time and labor. Very small soil minerals rich in aluminum and iron are known to protect soil carbon from decomposing too quickly—chemical extraction of the metals from those minerals can be used to predict SOC. The complexity of soil and its interactions with metals can make these predictions fraught, and so a new article in the Soil Science Society of America Journal seeks to better determine the relationships between extractable metals and SOC concentrations. See story on p. 10. Backdrop photo courtesy of Adobe Stock/Ozgur Coskun. Inset photos courtesy of NEON operated by Battelle. © 2021 Battelle Memorial Institute. All Rights Reserved.