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Methodological Aspects of the Determination of Fatty Acids in Soil by Thermochemolysis

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Abstract

Fatty acids (FAs) are among the most informative parts of nonspecific soil organic matter). Their composition and content reflect the specific features of many soil processes and the structure of the soil microbiome. One of the simplest and fastest methods to analyze FAs is thermochemolysis. Thermochemolysis is widely used to assess the content and composition of soil FAs but has many insufficiently clarified methodological issues. The goal of our work is to study the influence of various conditions of thermochemolysis on the detected FA composition by the case study of typical chernozem. The yield of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) depending on the concentration of the methylating agent tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) is estimated as well as the pyrolysis temperature and the time of soil exposure to TMAH. It is shown that an excessive amount of the derivatizing agent at high pyrolysis temperature decreases the yield of FAMEs and the relative abundance of monounsaturated FAMEs. The optimal conditions for assaying the FA content are the temperature range of 300–500°C and 15–40 mmol/g C TMAH. It is shown that the time of soil exposure to TMAH before analysis has no effect on the results of thermochemolysis.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work was performed using the equipment of the joint access center “Functions and Properties of Soils and Soil Cover” with the Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Funding

This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 19-16-00053).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, Pyzhevskii per. 7, 119017, Moscow, Russia

    Yu. R. Farkhodov, N. V. Yaroslavtseva & V. A. Kholodov

  2. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    Yu. R. Farkhodov

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  1. Yu. R. Farkhodov
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  2. N. V. Yaroslavtseva
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  3. V. A. Kholodov
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Correspondence to Yu. R. Farkhodov.

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Translated by G. Chirikova

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Farkhodov, Y.R., Yaroslavtseva, N.V. & Kholodov, V.A. Methodological Aspects of the Determination of Fatty Acids in Soil by Thermochemolysis. Eurasian Soil Sc. 54, 1176–1182 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229321080068

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