How Much Soil Carbon is Derived from Woody Detritus? A Ten-Year Study of 13C Incorporation into Soil Organic Matter

The importance of woody detritus as a source of soil organic matter is not well constrained. We quantified the recovery of 13C derived from isotopic-enriched sugar maple wood in various C fractions of two temperate forest soils in central New York, USA. Decay rates of small woody debris were quite rapid (k = 0.362 to 0.477 per year) and after 10 years less than 1