Recalcitrant carbon controls the magnitude of soil organic matter mineralization in temperate forests of northern China

Background The large potential of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere could greatly ameliorate the effect of future climate change. However, the quantity of carbon stored in terrestrial soils largely depends upon the magnitude of SOC mineralization. SOC mineralization constitutes an important part of the carbon cycle, and is driven by many biophysical variables, such as temperature and moisture.