Influence of Drying Temperature and Duration on the Quantification of Particulate Organic Matter

Various drying conditions, temperatures (40 to $80^{\circ}C$) and durations (overnight to 72 hrs), for the particulate organic matter (POM) fraction after wet-sieving size fractionation have been applied for determination of POM contents in the weight loss-on-ignition method. In this study, we investigated the optimum drying condition for POM fraction in quantification of POM and/or mineral-associated organic matter (MOM; usually indirectly estimated). The influence of the drying conditions on quantifying POM was dependent upon soil properties, especially the amount of soil organic components. In relatively high organic soils (total carbon > 40 g/kg in this study), the POM values were significantly higher (overestimated) with drying at $55^{\circ}C$ than those values at $105^{\circ}C$, which were, for example, 173.2 and 137.3 mg/kg, respectively, in a soil studied. However, drying at $55^{\circ}C$ for longer than 48 hrs of periods produced consistent POM values even though the values were much higher than those at $105^{\circ}C$. Thus, indirect estimates of MOM (MOM = SOM-POM) also tended to be significantly impacted by the dry conditions. Therefore, we suggest POM fractions should be dried at $105^{\circ}C$ for 24 hrs as determining POM and MOM contents. If the POM traction is needed to be dried at a lower temperature (e.g. $55^{\circ}C$) with a specific reason, at least 48 hrs of drying period is necessary to obtain consistent POM values, and a moisture correction factor should be determined to adjust the values back to a $105^{\circ}C$ weight basis.