A comparative survey of recent results on humic-like fractions in organic amendments and effects on native soil humic substances

The main scope of the wide use of organic amendments of various origin and nature in modern agriculture is to increase and/or restore the organic matter content in organically poor or depleted soils in order to maintain and/or increase crop production and reduce soil exposure to degradation, erosion, desertification and pollution. The agronomically efficient and environmentally safe use of any organic amendment requires, however, an adequate control not only of the chemical quality of the humic substance (HS)-like fractions contained, which is an important indicator of the maturity and stability achieved by organic matter in the amendment, but also of the effects that these HS may have on native soil HS. In this review, the most recent results obtained on this topic by the research groups operating in Bari, Italy, and in Madrid, Spain, are discussed comparatively with results recently published by other research groups. Overall, HS-like components of organic amendments are characterized by higher aliphatic character and molecular heterogeneity, lower contents of O, acidic functional groups and organic free radicals, and lower degrees of aromatic ring polycondensation, polymerization and humification than native soil HS. These differences are less evident for composted materials. The composition, structure and functionalities of HS in amended soils may be affected in different ways and at various extents on dependence of the nature, origin and rate of amendment. In general, these properties are intermediate between those of the unamended soil HS and the HS-like fractions in the amendment, but generally resemble more the former than the latter, especially with increasing time after amendment application.