EJP Soil - EnergyLink: Report on return on investment

This document reports on the potential return on metabolic investment that the soil microbiome can acquire from the consumption of organic matter (Task 3.2 in WP3). The task is led by Anke Herrmann and aims to analyse the energetic return-on-investment (ROI) that microbial decomposers can obtain when consuming organic matter of different molecular diversities. Details on the experiments in which a range of different organic substrates, with different energetic contents, were added to samples from fields with and without catch crops. The substrates used are listed, the protocol followed is detailed, and heat dissipation curves related to the consumption of the added organic substrates and the effects of catch crops on heat dissipation profiles are presented. In a final step, heat dissipation profiles were related to ROI, the latter was calculated using the nominal oxidation state of carbon (NOSC) and the total net energy available (ΔE).