文摘
Purpose Aromaticity of soil organic matter has often been considered an independent index of biogeochemical maturity, recalcitrance, and persistence of C in soils. The structural characteristics of soil humic acids (HAs) from various origins are studied by bi- and multivariate statistical exploratory analyses to select chemical descriptors surrogated to aromaticity. Materials and methods Structural features of 16 HAs were determined using analytical pyrolysis, wet chemical oxidation, and a variety of spectroscopic analyses. Data management was approached by (a) linear correlations between classical HAs structural descriptors and the concentration of aromatic C as seen by 13C NMR spectra as independent variable and (b) multivariate statistics to define HA aromaticity as an emergent property defined by the shared contribution of a set of variables. Results and discussion Significant correlations were found between HAs optical density (465?nm; E4) and aromatic C regions (13C NMR). These also paralleled the intensity of the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) bands ascribed to aromatic structures. Likewise, significant positive correlations were observed between E4 and aromatic compounds released by wet chemical degradation, with negative correlations with yields of aliphatic and lignin-derived methoxyphenols released by pyrolysis. Conclusions Multivariate classification of HAs-analytical descriptors allows the identification of variables, i.e., E4, H/C atomic ratio, intensity of aromatic C in the 13C NMR region between 110-40 and 140-60?ppm, and yield of benezenecarboxylic acids after chemical degradation, as surrogates for HAs-aromaticity. This HA characteristic is also responsive to the variability between environmental scenarios, mainly the effect of wildfires and soil management (clearing and cultivation).