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The Age and Genesis of Fe–Mn Nodules in Gray Forest Soils of the Southern Taiga Based on the Results of Isotope and Metagenomic Studies

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Moscow University Soil Science Bulletin Aims and scope

Abstract

The high sensitivity of plants and, consequently, the 13C/12C isotope ratio in their tissues to fluctuations in air humidity and temperature, as well as to the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, makes it possible to use this parameter as an accurate paleoclimatic indicator and biomarker of nodule genesis. Nodules of a gray forest soil of Moscow oblast were studied with the computed microtomography, biochemical analysis, and metagenomic sequencing. The composition of stable and radioactive carbon isotopes was determined in ferromanganese nodules. It has been shown for the first time that the age of the nodules of light gray forest soils formed on mantle noncalcareous loess-like clay loamy parent rocks exceeds 1600 years. At the same time, the carbon isotopic composition ( δ13C) of different fractions of nodules shows in them the remains of modern plant species (from –26.3 to –27.4 ‰) and confirms that woody plant lignin plays a leading role in the formation of nodules. The species composition of microorganisms varies in different fractions of nodules, makes the isotope composition of fine fractions heavier, and changes as soil hydromorphism increases. Drainage causes irreversible degradation of nodules, and first of all, their large fractions.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to the students A.L. Kharlak for decoding the results of metagenomic analysis and E.A. Zvychainaya for the preparation of nodules for tomographic studies, Deputy Director of the Skoltech Center for Petroleum Science and Engineering P.A. Grishin and senior researcher A.A. Burukhin for computed microtomography studies of the nodules.

Funding

This study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 17-14-01120) and within the framework of state orders to Moscow State University no. 121040800146-3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Soil Science, Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    I. V. Kovalev, N. O. Kovaleva & A. B. Fedotov

  2. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    E. M. Stolpnikova

Authors
  1. I. V. Kovalev
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  2. N. O. Kovaleva
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  3. E. M. Stolpnikova
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  4. A. B. Fedotov
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Correspondence to N. O. Kovaleva.

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Translated by V. Klyueva

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Kovalev, I.V., Kovaleva, N.O., Stolpnikova, E.M. et al. The Age and Genesis of Fe–Mn Nodules in Gray Forest Soils of the Southern Taiga Based on the Results of Isotope and Metagenomic Studies. Moscow Univ. Soil Sci. Bull. 77, 295–302 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3103/S014768742204007X

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S014768742204007X

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