Content and composition of organic matter in soils of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago

For the first time, the composition of organic matter (OM) in strongly skeletal residual carbonate pelozems (Skeletic Leptosols (Loamic)), carbopetrozems (Calcaric Leptosols (Protic)), petrozems (Skeletic Leptosols (Protic)) and cryozems (Oxyaquic) in the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago was studied using granulometric fractionation. It has been shown that, regardless of the depth of the horizons in all studied objects, carbon in particulate OM (free – LF_fr and occluded – LF_occ) is 94–96% (on average) represented by organic C (C_org), in the clay fraction and the residue, the share of C_org decreases to 87 and 54% of the C_total in fraction. The level of C_org accumulation in various fractions largely determines the microbiological activity in the studied soils. The correlation coefficient (R², P < 0.05) between C_org of specific fractions (% in soil) and the content of microbial biomass decreases in the following order: LF_occ (0.59) > mA (0.53) > LF_fr (0.50) > clay (0.36) > residue (0.26), reflecting the important role of soil structural units, in particular, microaggregates within aggregates (mA) that are unstable in the ultrasonic field, in providing comfortable environmental conditions for the microbiota.

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