Particulate detrital matter

A majority of the extracellular enzymes released by the microbes are bound to the solid surface (such as particulate detrital matter or soil organic matter in clays), but a small fraction remains in the soil pore water (Eigure 5.17). Those free in soil pore water are most susceptible to microbial degradation and chemical alteration. Surface-bound enzymes may not be as effective as free enzymes because of a slow rate of substrate diffusion to the sites where enzymes are present. 

THE CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATION OF DETRITAL PARTICULATE ORGANIC MATTER... 

Transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs) Detrital particulate organic matter whose origin is secretions and exudates from marine organisms. 

FIGURE 1 Detrital structure and primary fluxes of dissolved organic carbon in lake ecosystems with the food-web structure of predominantly pelagic components (box) that reflects the importance of the microbiota, the microbial loop, and physical processes by which most other organic matter inputs are metabolized heterotrophically or degraded by physical processes. DOM denotes dissolved organic matter, with labile (LDOM) and recalcitrant (RDOM) components POM denotes particulate organic matter. 

As discussed earlier, most of the phosphorus entering wetlands accumulates within the system. Surface soils in nutrient-impacted wetlands are often enriched as a result of recent accumulation, decomposition processes, and remobilization of phosphorus from subsurface soils to surface through plant uptake and deposition as detritus material. Thus, total phosphorus content of surface soils is higher than that of subsurface soils. Similar total phosphorus profiles have been seen for many wetlands and aquatic systems. In the impacted site, subsurface total phosphorus content can also represent the background levels of phosphorus for these soils, assuming that the surface material is the result of recent accumulation. Much of this phosphorus accumulation is due to organic matter accretion (detrital matter deposition) associated with phosphorus sorption to particulate matter. 

Organic PP is associated with detrital matter from dead and decomposing bacteria, phytoplankton, zooplankton cells, and periphyton, as well as from vascular plants, and organic phosphorus associated with particulate matter is termed as POP. POP is estimated as follows ... 

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