Abstract
RECENT experiments have shown that the characteristic flush of decomposition that follows the wetting of a dry soil can be partly prevented by the addition of 0.5 gm. of activated charcoal (per 30 gm. soil) and almost completely prevented by 1.5 gm. or more (Fig. 1). When the soils were then oven-dried and re-wetted without further treatment a similar result was obtained. When a slowly decomposing moist soil was treated with ether vapour under vacuum and the excess vapour then removed, a similar flush of decomposition resulted which was also repeated with successive treatments. Here, however, the flush of decomposition was not inhibited by charcoal.
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BIRCH, H. Further Aspects of Humus Decomposition. Nature 182, 1172 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1821172a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1821172a0
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