Summary
The amounts of chlorophyll-type compounds in materials commonly deposited on or in soil were measured and the processes that destroy them in materials on the soil surface, and the ways they may enter the soil, were studied. Of plant material commonly deposited on the soil, freshly-cut ryegrass and lucerne contained most of such compounds and cereal straw least. Faeces from grazing cattle and sheep contained nearly as mush as grass; farmyard manure contained only five per cent as much as fresh faeces.
Nine-tenths of the chlorophyll in chopped-up, fresh ryegrass leaves was decomposed in six days; this decomposition was attributed to tissue enzymes and was prevented by boiling, drying, water-logging or freezing. Microorganisms decomposed about sixty per cent of chlorophyll in ryegrass leaves in 90 days.
A large amount of chlorophyll-type compounds in faeces on soil leached 4 inches deep into the soil during 90 days in the autumn. Soil under 100-year-old, grazed pasture contained more of these compounds than under grassland that was cut for hay each year.
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Hoyt, P.B. Chlorophyll-type compounds in soil. Plant Soil 25, 167–180 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01347816
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01347816