Carbohydrates in soils

Cheshire, M. V. 1979. Nature and Origin of Carbohydrates in Soils. Academic Press, London. 

The following questions may be asked. Which monomeric sugars are present in soil carbohydrates and in what quantities What kinds of carbohydrates occur in soil What proportion of the organic matter of soil is carbohydrate Are carbohydrates linked to other soil constituents What is the source and what is the role of carbohydrates in soils What are the differences between the carbohydrates of different soils ... 

Investigations on the influence of the carbohydrates on soil properties, and attempts to determine the composition of soil organic matter, have prompted many workers to determine, quantitatively, the proportion of carbohydrates in soils. 

Microscopic, electron-microscopic, and histochemical techniques would help in studying the actual state of carbohydrates in soils. 

Explain why decomposition of lignin is slower than that of carbohydrates in soils. 

The carbohydrate in soil, which, on average, accounts for about ten per cent of the organic carbon content, forms one of the largest of the soil organic matter fractions, in so far as these may be defined. Most of the carbohydrate is in the form of polysaccharide,... 

In theory, carbohydrates in soil should provide a rich source of... 

Finally, the physical disposition of the carbohydrate in soil must... 

Bongiovanni MD, Lobartini JC (2006) Particulate organic matter, carbohydrate, humic acid contents in soil macro- and microaggregates as affected by cultivation. Geoderma 136 660-665... 

Suppliers of visible spectrophotometers are reviewed in Table 1.1. Spectroscopic methods are applicable to the determination of phenols, chlorophenols, amines, mixtures of organics, boron, halogens, total nitrogen and total phosphorus in soils, cationic surfactants, carbohydrates, total nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur in non-saline sediments, boron, total organic carbon, total sulphur and arsenic in saline sediments, cationic surfactants, adenosine triphosphate and total organic carbon in sludges. 

This technique has been applied to the determination of arsenic, selenium, organocompounds of arsenic, mercury and tin in soils, carbohydrates, total sulphur, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, selenium and organocompounds of mercury, tin and silicon in non-saline sediments, arsenic, bismuth, selenium or organotin compounds in saline sediments and arsenic and selenium in sludges. 

Despite the advances made in high-performance liquid chromatography in recent years, there are still occasionally applications in which conventional column chromatography is employed. These methods lack the sensitivity, resolution and automation of HPLC. They include the determination of urea herbicides in soil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, carbohydrates, chloroaliphatic compounds and humic and fulvic acids in non-saline sediments. The technique has also been applied in sludge analysis, e.g. aliphatic hydrocarbons and carboxylic acids. 

S. Signorella, C. Palopoli, M. Santoro, S. Garcia, V. Daier, J. C. Gonzalez, V. Roldan, M. I. Frascaroli, M. Rizzotto, and L. F. Sala, Kinetics and mechanistic studies on the chromic oxidation of carbohydrates. Implications on environmental contamination by chromium(VI) in soils (review), Res. Trends, 7 (2001) 197-207. 

See the discussion with references in Chapter 4 Nitrate and water soluble carbohydrate. Soil extracts low in colour may also be analysed by this procedure by taking a 10-ml scoop of fresh or thawed soil. The official Bran-rLuebbe AutoAnalyzer method for nitrate and nitrite in soil, plant and fertilizer extracts is reproduced with permission in Appendix 5. 

Manganese is an essential element for plants and animals. Its shortage in soil can cause chlorosis or lack of chlorophyll in plants—manifested by the appearance of yellow or grey streaks on the leaves or mottling. It activates certain plant enzymes, such as oxalosuccinic decacarboxylase in the oxidation of carbohydrates. Manganese deficiency can cause deformity of bones in animals. 

As mentioned earlier, the abundance of carbohydrates in ocean DOM relative to river DOM does not reflect the biochemical compositions of terrestrial plants and marine phytoplankton. It appears that carbohydrates in plant litter are largely degraded in soils, resulting in relatively low concentrations in river DOM. Carbohydrates are the major components of exudates from phytoplankton (Biddanda and Benner, 1997 Biersmith and Benner, 1998), and herbivorous grazing also releases carbohydrates to the DOM reservoir (Strom et al., 1997). The in situ production of dissolved carbohydrates in the surface ocean appears to result in a greater relative abundance of carbohydrates in the ocean relative to rivers. 

Geoghegan, M. J., and Brian, R. C. (1948). Aggregate formation in soil. 2. Influence of various carbohydrates and proteins in aggregation of soil particles. Biochem. J. 43,14-14. 

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