A review of both the living and non-living components of soil organic matter (SOM) in the agricultural soils of Tasmania, Australia, and the relationship of SOM to the functions of soil has been undertaken. The relationships between soil organic carbon (SOC) and other inherent and dynamic soil properties of Tasmanian soils, SOC stocks, the components and the controlling factors are reviewed. The dynamic nature of SOM is reviewed as targets, rates of change and trends on different soil orders and under different management as well as the correlation to soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Information on macro fauna, meso fauna, fungi and bacteria is considered to acknowledge that SOM is a dynamic, changing resource that reflects the balance between the living components that add new organic matter and the loss of organic matter from the dead component.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	organic carbon, humus, biochar, dynamic, crop yield
Research Division:	Environmental Sciences
Research Group:	Climate change impacts and adaptation
Research Field:	Carbon sequestration science
Objective Division:	Environmental Management
Objective Group:	Terrestrial systems and management
Objective Field:	Soils
UTAS Author:	Cotching, WE (Dr Bill Cotching)
ID Code:	122324
Year Published:	2018
Web of Science® Times Cited:	6
Deposited By:	TIA - Research Institute
Deposited On:	2017-11-09
Last Modified:	2019-03-01
Downloads:	0