Spectroscopic techniques combined with chemometrics to study organic matter in tropical soils with different degrees of pedogenetic evolution

Understanding of the organomineral interactions in soil can elucidate the humic substances (HS) formation and the humification process. This study aimed to structurally characterize the humic acids (HA) formed in tropical soils with different pedogenesis degrees. The HA fraction was extracted from soil samples in the superficial horizons of an Inceptisol and a Mollisol in Rio de Janeiro state. The HA was characterized using spectroscopic techniques following by chemometric analyses: principal component analysis, descriptive analysis, and multivariate curve resolution. The results show that HA extracted from superficial horizon of Inceptisol and Mollisol are structurally different. The Inceptisol HA has a lower E4/E6 ratio than the Mollisol HA. The chemical groups show that most -CH groups belong to -CH2 and -CH3 and hydroxyls (-OH) for the Inceptisol HA, whereas the Mollisol HA predominantly contains aromatic C=C groups. The Inceptisol HA is mainly composed of CAlkyl-H,R and -C=O structures, whereas the Mollisol HA contains a higher quantity of CAlkyl-O,N, CAlkyl-O and CAromatic-H,R groups. The Inceptisol HA has a higher aliphatic content and hydrophobicity than the Mollisol HA. In Inceptisol, organic carbon stabilization can be facilitated by hydrophobic interactions, whereas in Mollisol, different interaction sites can stabilize proteinaceous compounds.