Abstract
The study of macromorphologically differentiated horizons from three forest humus types (mull, moder, mor) demonstrated the suitability of pyrolysis-mass spectrometry to characterize, differentiate and identify organic compounds in humic soil horizons at different stages of humification. Besides lower molecular pyrolysis products the combination of high-resolution pyrolysis-field ionization mass spectrometry and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/electron impact mass spectrometry also enabled the characterization of higher molecular subunits from forest humus that cannot be accounted for by wet chemical methods. Thus, a higher resistance to biodegradation of bound, long-chain n-fatty acids and condensed lignin dimers could be shown in comparison with the wet-chemically described compounds. The mass spectra of humic substances show significant differences between fulvic acid, humic acid and humin. The computer-constructed summed spectrum of these three fractions differs significantly from the spectrum of original sample and indicates chemical alterations and selective losses during sample preparation.
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