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In the absence of plant residue the influence of pore characteristics on CO 2 emission, that is on decomposition of the native soil organic C, was negligible. In the samples with greater abundance of water-filled small pores, 60% of the added plant residue was decomposed, cumulative CO 2 emission constituted 2,000 µm C g -1 soil, and the movement of residue C into adjacent soil was substantial. We observed that in the samples with substantial presence of air-filled well-connected large (>30 µm) pores, 75–80% of the added plant residue was decomposed, cumulative CO 2 emission constituted 1,200 µm C g -1 soil, and movement of C from decomposing plant residue into adjacent soil was insignificant. The study consisted of several soil incubation experiments with samples of contrasting pore characteristics with/without plant residue, accompanied by X-ray micro-tomographic analyses of soil pores and by microbial community analysis of amplified 16S–18S rRNA genes via pyrosequencing. The goal of this study was to explore the influence of soil structure, that is, soil pore spatial arrangements, with and without presence of plant residue on (i) decomposition of added plant residue, (ii) CO 2 emission from soil, and (iii) structure of soil bacterial communities.
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However, its exact mechanisms are still not sufficiently lucid. Physical protection of soil carbon (C) is one of the important components of C storage.