Скачать или смотреть Soil ecology walk: Necromass vs biomass - what's the difference and why is this important?

Soil ecology walk #2
Join me on this short stroll through wintery Berlin, where I explain the difference between biomass and necromass, and why this is important for soil.

#soil #soilmicrobiome #soilcarbon #necromass #soilhealth

Transcript:

Necromass and biomass
You have all heard of biomass, but what about its darker cousin, necromass? Welcome to this soil ecology walk. I am Matthias Rillig, professor of ecology, and during these walks I chat about things that I see.
We’re all quite familiar with biomass, the amount of living organisms. When biomass dies off, it becomes necromass. And that transition is quite important, because necromass is not the same as biomass, only dead. There is a process that leads from biomass to necromass, in leaves this is quite obvious, because they are green when they’re alive, but they turn various colors, including brown when they have died, this is because material is resorbed from the leaves before they are shed. An analogous process also occurs in the soil: living microbial biomass is transferred to microbial necromass, but that necromass is not just dead living microbial cells. It has been modified, modified in various ways depending on how the microbe or other organism has died. This is important because much of soil organic carbon is derived from microbial necromass. Thus we need to understand how microbial necromass is actually formed and how it differs from biomass, which we understand a lot better.
It is interesting to think about how soil microbes are still important for the soil system long after they’ve actually died.
Bye and see you on the next soil ecology walk.

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