TY - JOUR

T1 - Architecture of soil microaggregates

T2 - Advanced methodologies to explore properties and functions

AU - Amelung, Wulf

AU - Tang, Ni

AU - Siebers, Nina

AU - Aehnelt, Michaela

AU - Eusterhues, Karin

AU - Felde, Vincent J.M.N.L.

AU - Guggenberger, Georg

AU - Kaiser, Klaus

AU - Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid

AU - Klumpp, Erwin

AU - Knief, Claudia

AU - Kruse, Jens

AU - Lehndorff, Eva

AU - Mikutta, Robert

AU - Peth, Stephan

AU - Ray, Nadja

AU - Prechtel, Alexander

AU - Ritschel, Thomas

AU - Schweizer, Steffen A.

AU - Woche, Susanne K.

AU - Wu, Bei

AU - Totsche, Kai U.

N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by , ( 251268514), particularly subprojects , To and To . W. Amelung additionally acknowledges support from the under , , - . The µ-XANES research described in this paper was performed at the Canadian Light Source, a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan, which is supported by the (), the (), the (), the (), the , and the . Authors thank for helping performing the experiments at the SXRMB-Beamline, for performing epi-fluorescence microscope measurements, and for performing NanoSIMS measurements. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft research unit RU 2179 MADSoil project number Am 134/25-2 184/23-2 184/24-2 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Germany's Excellence Strategy EXC-2070-390732324–PhenoRob the cluster of excellence PhenoRob robotics and phenotyping for sustianable crop production Canada Foundation for Innovation CFI Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council NSERC National Research Council NRC Canadian Institutes of Health Research CIHR Government of Saskatchewan University of Saskatchewan J. Hu Tongyan Yao Carmen Höschen

PY - 2024/2/8

Y1 - 2024/2/8

N2 - The functions of soils are intimately linked to their three-dimensional pore space and the associated biogeochemical interfaces, mirrored in the complex structure that developed during pedogenesis. Under stress overload, soil disintegrates into smaller compound structures, conventionally named aggregates. Microaggregates (<250 µm) are recognized as the most stable soil structural units. They are built of mineral, organic, and biotic materials, provide habitats for a vast diversity of microorganisms, and are closely involved in the cycling of matter and energy. However, exploring the architecture of soil microaggregates and their linkage to soil functions remains a challenging but demanding scientific endeavor. With the advent of complementary spectromicroscopic and tomographic techniques, we can now assess and visualize the size, composition, and porosity of microaggregates and the spatial arrangement of their interior building units. Their combinations with advanced experimental pedology, multi-isotope labeling experiments, and computational approaches pave the way to investigate microaggregate turnover and stability, explore their role in element cycling, and unravel the intricate linkage between structure and function. However, spectromicroscopic techniques operate at different scales and resolutions, and have specific requirements for sample preparation and microaggregate isolation; hence, special attention must be paid to both the separation of microaggregates in a reproducible manner and the synopsis of the geography of information that originates from the diverse complementary instrumental techniques. The latter calls for further development of strategies for synlocation and synscaling beyond the present state of correlative analysis. Here, we present examples of recent scientific progress and review both options and challenges of the joint application of cutting-edge techniques to achieve a sophisticated picture of the properties and functions of soil microaggregates.

AB - The functions of soils are intimately linked to their three-dimensional pore space and the associated biogeochemical interfaces, mirrored in the complex structure that developed during pedogenesis. Under stress overload, soil disintegrates into smaller compound structures, conventionally named aggregates. Microaggregates (<250 µm) are recognized as the most stable soil structural units. They are built of mineral, organic, and biotic materials, provide habitats for a vast diversity of microorganisms, and are closely involved in the cycling of matter and energy. However, exploring the architecture of soil microaggregates and their linkage to soil functions remains a challenging but demanding scientific endeavor. With the advent of complementary spectromicroscopic and tomographic techniques, we can now assess and visualize the size, composition, and porosity of microaggregates and the spatial arrangement of their interior building units. Their combinations with advanced experimental pedology, multi-isotope labeling experiments, and computational approaches pave the way to investigate microaggregate turnover and stability, explore their role in element cycling, and unravel the intricate linkage between structure and function. However, spectromicroscopic techniques operate at different scales and resolutions, and have specific requirements for sample preparation and microaggregate isolation; hence, special attention must be paid to both the separation of microaggregates in a reproducible manner and the synopsis of the geography of information that originates from the diverse complementary instrumental techniques. The latter calls for further development of strategies for synlocation and synscaling beyond the present state of correlative analysis. Here, we present examples of recent scientific progress and review both options and challenges of the joint application of cutting-edge techniques to achieve a sophisticated picture of the properties and functions of soil microaggregates.

KW - aggregate dispersion and fractionation

KW - in silico soil aggregates

KW - microbial biogeography of aggregates

KW - soil interfaces

KW - spectromicroscopy

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85171883710&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/jpln.202300149

DO - 10.1002/jpln.202300149

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85171883710

VL - 187

SP - 17

EP - 50

JO - Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

JF - Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

SN - 1436-8730

IS - 1

ER -