Tracing and Quantifying Sources of Fatty Acids and Steroids in Amended Cultivated Soils

Mots-Clés Auteurs : Organic matter; animal manures; biomarker; experimental fields; polar compounds; persistence / / Soluble organic fractions from soils of two agricultural sites from / Brittany (France) have been analyzed to (i) identify the source of / polar compounds in soils and (ii) evaluate the impact of organic / fertilization and crop type on the distribution and concentration of / polar compounds in soils. The main sources of polar compounds in soils / are higher plants; they represent >70% of the polar compounds from the / experimental sites and mainly originate from crop residues and animal / manure. Crop type and animal manure application significantly increase / the polar compound concentrations in soils. Among polar compounds, / fatty acids cannot be used as specific markers because their / distributions in soils whatever the crop type or organic fertilization / type are the same. On the other hand, analysis of steroids provides / interesting information. Cow and poultry manure applications increase / only the concentration of steroids. Pig slurry fertilization modifies / both the concentration and distribution of steroids. The identified pig / slurry steroid fingerprint can persist in the soil for 9 years after / the slurry application has been stopped. Those compounds are then / robust markers to detect pig slurry contribution in soils.