Soil and soil fraction radiocarbon, C and N from the Enriched Background Isotope Study, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA

A large accidental 14CO2 release at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, USA provided a strong label pulse into adjacent, well-studied oak forests, resulting in highly elevated Δ14C values in leaf litter (~1000‰) and roots (~260–450‰). A four-year manipulative study was conducted to provide insight into mechanisms underlying soil Organic matter dynamics, specifically to determine the relative contribution of litter versus roots to the bulk mineral soil C pool, as well as to free light, occluded light and heavy fractions. The heavy fraction was further split into fractions with densities of 1.7–2.4 g cm-3 and >2.4 g cm-3 to test the homogeneity of the mineral-associated fraction of C. Substantial concentrations of label were detected in all soil fractions within a year of the 14CO2 release, indicating rapid incorporation of newly fixed photosynthates in all fractions of soil organic C, regardless of differences in stability inferred by previous work. This rapid incorporation of label occurred only in treatments where roots were labeled, indicating that roots are the major source of inputs to mineral soil C stocks at these sites. Separation of the heavy fraction into subfractions of intermediate (1.7–2.4 g cm -3) and high (>2.4 g cm-3) density indicated that both subfractions incorporated label at similar rates, despite significant differences in degree of microbial processing.