ABSTRACT
Carbohydrates represent about 10%–15% of total soil organic carbon (Cheshire 1979) and
5%–10% of organic nitrogen (Greenfield 2001). Most carbohydrates are present in soil as
complex polysaccharides composed of monomers of either plant or microbial origin (e.g.,
cellulose, hemicellulose, peptidoglycan, chitin) (Oades and Wagner 1971; Parsons 1981).
Carbohydrates can be used by soil microflora as energy and nutrient sources (Alexander
1977; Cheshire 1979), and have been shown to play a key role in the formation and
stabilization of soil aggregates (Cheshire 1979; Tisdall and Oades 1982).
