Hello,
I have run a substrate induced respiration (SIR) experiment on a set of soil samples and calculated the rate of CO2 evolution for each sample using the equation:
RCO2-C (μg CO2–C g-1 h-1) = (V0 x 12 / (22.4 x t x msd))*1000
where RCO2-C represents rate of CO2-C formation on a soil dry mass basis (μg CO2-C g-1 h-1), V0 is enrichment volume of CO2 under standard temperature and pressure conditions (ml), 12 is molar mass of CO2-C (g mol-1), 22.4 is molar volume of CO2 under standard conditions, t is incubation time (hours) and msd is mass of dry soil (g)
The average background CO2 concentration is subtracted to take atmospheric input into account. The final induced rate is calculated by subtracting the RCO2-C value obtained at T2 from that obtained at T4, so I am left with a single rate of CO2 evolution value for each sample.
My question is, can I use this value to calculate microbial biomass C? In the form of ug C/g soil.
I assume for every g of CO2, I measure of 0.2727g C, but that's as far as I get.
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