Carbon sequestration and storage in soils provide an important means of reducing GHGs in the atmosphere to mitigate predicted climate changes. ... An understanding of the mechanisms involved in C stabilization in soils is needed for controlling and enhancing soil C sequestra- tion.

On the other hand, organic carbon residing in plants are often referred to as 'labile-carbon' because they cycle in the soil relatively quickly. Recalcitrant organic-carbon – is organic material resistant to decomposition and is normally dominated by charcoal.

Carbon stabilization indicates the viability of carbon-rich biomass to be usable as biofertilizer for the benefit of cultivated crops. It refers also to the completion of the thermophyilic phase during composting that completes the humification process, enhancing carbon chelates that will retain and exchange most effectively with plants roots a variety of anions and cations. The other forms of carbon (recalcitrant, old carbon, turnover) refer to carbon molecules that cannot be easily humified and/or that eventually lose their chelating properties (old carbon) as the carbon completes its cycle (turnover) within the soil.