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Priming Effects on Soil Organic Matter Mineralization by Carbon Substrates: A Global Meta‐Analysis
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Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of over 8,000 observations to show that all major carbon inputs — including biodegradable microplastics — trigger positive priming effects that accelerate soil organic matter mineralization, with rapidly degradable plastics like polyhydroxyalkanoates boosting mineralization by up to 258% and soil clay content acting as a key moderating variable.
Priming effects (PE) on soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization depend strongly on the type of carbon substrates added. It is crucial to understand the PE induced by various carbon substrates for predicting SOM dynamics and soil-atmosphere carbon feedback. We conducted a meta-analysis of 8015 observations from 283 articles to evaluate how carbon substrates (plant residues, root exudates, biochar, and degradable microplastics) regulate the mineralization of SOM through PE. Results demonstrated that all these types of carbon substrates increased SOM mineralization, which induced a positive PE. Plant residues induced the highest average PE, followed by root exudates, biochar, and degradable microplastics. Compared to soils without carbon substrate inputs, the rate of SOM mineralization increased by 113% in soil with cellulose-rich non-woody residues, whereas it increased by only 25% in soil with lignin-rich woody residues. The mineralization of SOM increased by organic acids (151%) was greatest in root exudates, followed by monosaccharides (60%) and polysaccharides (12%). The strong mineralization induced by organic acids was probably related to the release of more mineral nutrients by reducing soil pH. The PE on SOM mineralization by woody biochar with high aromatic carbon content (48%) was greater than that of non-woody biochar with high alkyl carbon content (43%). Microplastics with rapidly degradable polyhydroxyalkanoates induced more SOM mineralization (258%) than polybutylene succinate (61%) and polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate (21%). The SOM priming was positively correlated with soil clay and incubation moisture, and negatively correlated with soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, soil C:N ratio, dissolved organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon, carbon input rate, incubation temperature, and soil depth. These results show that the positive PE is ubiquitous in soil ecosystems; its magnitude is linked intrinsically to the physicochemical characteristics and source of exogenous carbon substrate.
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