The Role of Iron in the Mediation of Nitrogen Mineralization.

It is becomingly increasingly evident that mineralogy plays a strong role in organic matter dynamics. Many of these investigations have centered around carbon dynamics, with a particular eye to carbon mineralization and stabilization processes. These studies often overlook the accompanying mineralization of nitrogen, a vital nutrient for plant nutrition. Therefore, nitrogen availability to plants is potentially mediated by soil mineralogical components. Iron is a dynamic element in soil mineralogy, being present in large quantities in a variety of forms, as well as having a strong ability to sorb organic matter. For these reasons, we investigated several forms of iron and their ability to mediate nitrogen mineralization in California agricultural soils. We found that these fractions of iron work in tandem with other soil factors to play a dominant role in the availability of organic matter for mineralization and subsequent availability for plant uptake.