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Priming Effects in Relation to Soil Conditions – Mechanisms

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Encyclopedia of Agrophysics

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Priming effect is defined as a short-term change in the turnover of soil organic matter caused by treatments, usually addition of organic C to the soil (Kuzyakov et al., 2000) (Figure 1). Usually since the soil organic matter (SOM) turnover is not directly measured, but it is determined by changes in CO2 efflux rates or N mineralization rates, the origin of extra CO2-C (primed carbon) or N cannot be directly evaluated. Therefore, the real priming effect (RPE) cannot be assessed based only on extra CO2. Other processes, such as accelerated microbial turnover may contribute to the changes in the CO2 efflux rates or N mineralization rates (Dalenberg and Jager, 1981; Wu et al., 1993; De Nobili et al., 2001). Accelerated CO2 evolution in response to the activation of microbial metabolism and higher microbial biomass turnover is not related to the SOM turnover and is termed as apparent priming effect(APE). Usually, the microbial succession initiated by the input of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agroecosystem Research, University of Bayreuth, D-95440, Bayreuth, Germany

    Evgenia Blagodatskaya & Yakov Kuzyakov

  2. Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290, Pushchino, Russia

    Evgenia Blagodatskaya

Authors
  1. Evgenia Blagodatskaya
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  2. Yakov Kuzyakov
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Correspondence to Evgenia Blagodatskaya .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lublin, Poland

    Jan Gliński , Józef Horabik  & Jerzy Lipiec ,  & 

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Blagodatskaya, E., Kuzyakov, Y. (2011). Priming Effects in Relation to Soil Conditions – Mechanisms. In: Gliński, J., Horabik, J., Lipiec, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Agrophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3585-1_128

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