Purpose Farmers need alternative approaches to manage nitrogen (N) that meet crop needs while reducing loss to the environment. Identifying crop genotypes that promote decomposition of organic materials and understanding the potential mechanisms responsible could help address this challenge. Consequently, we aimed to 1) determine whether carrot genotypes differ in their potential to facilitate organic matter decomposition in s...

The factors regulating soil animal communities are poorly understood. Current theory favors niche complementarity and facilitation over competition as the primary forms of non‐trophic interspecific interaction in soil fauna; however, competition has frequently been suggested as an important community‐structuring factor in earthworms, ecosystem engineers that influence belowground processes. To date, direct evidence of competit...

Soil carbon turnover models generally divide soil carbon into pools with varying intrinsic decomposition rates. Although these decomposition rates are modified by factors such as temperature, texture, and moisture, they are rationalized by assuming chemical structure is a primary controller of decomposition. In the current work, we use near edge X‐ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy in combination with differen...

Alterations in forest productivity and changes in the relative proportion of above‐ and belowground biomass may have nonlinear effects on soil organic matter (SOM) storage. To study the influence of plant litter inputs on SOM accumulation, the Detritus Input Removal and Transfer (DIRT) Experiment continuously alters above‐ and belowground plant inputs to soil by a combination of trenching, screening, and litter addition. Here,...