pH / BS
I guess my question here is related to this topic:
To my understanding, a coniferous forest floor (specifically mor) tends to be more acidic than deciduous forest floor because the very slow and incomplete decomposition of conifer litter due to high C/N ratio and lignin favors low HA/FA ratio (FA is more acidic than HA).
If this is correct and definition of organic matter includes both non-humic and humic substances, couldn't adding organic matter that is rich with FA acidify a soil? Or, is that because any change in proton conc. by adding FA rich OM to a soil is insignificant and readily buffered by clay mineral and other soil colloids?
I'm bit confused. Thank you for the clarification!
Taku, try not to over complicate. Coniferous litter (e.g. pine) returns less base-forming cations to the soil than deciduous litter (e.g. maple)