The interplay between natural organic matter (NOM) and decomposer communities at the nexus of solids, solutes and volatiles regulates a C reservoir larger than all living biomass on Earth, making it a keystone in the global carbon cycle. Despite its ubiquitousness, NOM remains a black box due to its astonishing molecular complexity. Advances in ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS, Orbitrap, TOF-MS) have enabled researchers to analyze NOM in all forms - solid, soluble and volatile - on the molecular-level. Ultimately, this allows to resolve the molecular complexity of NOM, and to elucidate its mediating role in various processes essential for life on Earth, such as energy flow, nutrient retention and resupply, or climate stability.
The challenge ahead of us is to synthesize the gained knowledge from various research communities (biogeochemistry, soil sciences, atmospheric sciences, aquatic sciences, analytical chemistry, geomicrobiology), ultimately providing useful data and process understanding to integrate in C cycle models that represent its molecular complexity in a more realistic way. To achieve this, it is also required to develop computational methods to align FT-ICR-MS data with complementary spectroscopic and mass spectrometric techniques (NMR, FT-IR, XPS, py-GC-MS, EEMs-PARAFAC, PTR-MS, etc.) and allow for a community-driven effort to share, curate and compare global molecular-level datasets.
In this session we therefore welcome proceedings in the following domains:
- Experimental, e.g. focusing on single or combined processes of NOM biogeochemistry or its links with other drivers such as microbial communities,
- Field-scale, e.g. studying the behavior of NOM across environmental gradients or interfaces,
- Modeling and simulation, e.g. integrating molecular-level data to improve the prediction of environmental processes or simulate ecosystem functioning,
- Computational, e.g. bioinformatic approaches to facilitate the analysis of molecular-level NOM data, or allowing its integration with complementary data streams,
- Analytical, e.g. improving or expanding the measurement of NOM on the molecular level, or providing novel tools to reveal its properties, responses or effects
We are looking forward to bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to share their perspectives on studying NOM at EGU25!