Analysis of Fire-Derived Organic Matter in Soil and Sediment.

Fire-derived organic matter (also called pyrogenic, black or elemental carbon) is the product of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass formed under a wide range of combustion conditions. During the last decade, identification and quantification of fire-derived organic matter came into the focus of interest for atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, soil scientists, and ecologists (e.g. Preston & Schmidt 2006). At present, however, scientific disciplines do not agree on a consistent use of classification, nomenclature and concepts of identification (Hammes et al. 2007) of fire-derived organic matter. An international intercomparison project created a set of benchmark materials spanning the combustion continuum, and considering the needs of soil scientists, oceanographers, and ecologists (www.geo.uzh.ch/phys/bc). This was used in an international intercomparision study (Hammes et al. 2007), and demonstrated the urgent need for standardization of methods, in order to link results from different studies. Fire-derived organic matter is present in many soils worldwide, and contributes to the relatively stable pool of soil organic matter (von Lützow et al. 2008), although turnover times from long-term field experiments do not yet exist. Also, as a soil forming factor, fire has contributed to the formation of some chernozemic, dark colored soils (Eckmeier et al. 2007; Gerlach et al. 2006).
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