ABSTRACT
Soil organic matter (SOM) is a key natural pool of energy and capital in a holistic assessment of global terrestrial ecosystem services (Brown and Ulgiati 1999). It is also a vital material for soil fertility of croplands and has been proposed as a key soil parameter for characterizing soil quality for productivity and ecosystem functioning (Tiessen et al. 1994). In a global perspective of key soil quality parameters, topsoil SOM content has been adopted as a more appropriate overall soil quality indicator than other properties for the European Union’s (EU) agricultural and forestry sectors (European Commission 2002). It has been widely reported that contents of SOM in croplands have significant control on crop productivity and functioning (Dawea et al. 2003), and this control has been well addressed by Manlay et al. (2007).
