RESEARCH ARTICLE The development of soil organic matter in restored biodiverse Jarrah forests of South-Western Australia as determined by ASE and GCMS Deborah S. Lin & Paul F. Greenwood & Suman George & Paul J. Somerfield & Mark Tibbett Received: 11 June 2010 / Accepted: 21 December 2010 / Published online: 12 February 2011 # Springer-Verlag 2011 Abstract Background, aim and scope Soil organic matter (SOM) is known to increase with time as landscapes recover after a major disturbance; however, little is known about the evolution of the chemistry of SOM in reconstructed ecosys- tems. In this study, we assessed the development of SOM chemistry in a chronosequence (space for time substitution) of restored Jarrah forest sites in Western Australia. Materials and methods Replicated samples were taken at the surface of the mineral soil as well as deeper in the profile at sites of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 17 years of age. A molecular approach was developed to distinguish and quantify numerous individual compounds in SOM. This used accelerated solvent extraction in conjunction with gas chromatography mass spectrometry. A novel multivariate statistical approach was used to assess changes in accelerated solvent extraction (ASE)-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) spectra. This enabled us to track SOM developmental trajectories with restoration time. Results Results showed total carbon concentrations approached that of native forests soils by 17 years of restoration. Using the relate protocol in PRIMER, we demonstrated an overall linear relationship with site age at both depths, indicating that changes in SOM chemistry were occurring. Conclusions The surface soils were seen to approach native molecular compositions while the deeper soil retained a more stable chemical signature, suggesting litter from the developing diverse plant community has altered SOM near the surface. Our new approach for assessing SOM development, combining ASE-GCMS with illuminating multivariate statistical analysis, holds great promise to more fully develop ASE for the characterisation of SOM. Keywords Soil carbon sequestration . Restoration ecology . Solvent extractable carbon 1 Introduction Soil organic matter (SOM) is one of the most important factors contributing to forest soil ecology and biodiversity (Berg 2000). Forest litter accumulation and its effect on SOM after clear felling, re-planting and restoration has been studied extensively (Chertov et al. 1999; Schwenke et al. 2000a, b; Turk and Graham 2009; Van Wesemael and Veer 1992). In recent reviews of studies on SOM in soils of restored forests in Australia, Tibbett (2008; 2010) found a general trend of soil carbon accumulation over time that can at least match the natural undisturbed forests in terms of total carbon concentration. However, the majority of measurements were based on various forms of total carbon (dry combustion chromatography; Van Moort and De Vries 1970) or organic carbon (wet oxidation; Walkley and Black 1934). These Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu D. S. Lin : P. F. Greenwood : S. George : M. Tibbett (*) Centre for Land Rehabilitation, School of Earth and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia e-mail: Mark.Tibbett@uwa.edu.au P. J. Somerfield Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, United Kingdom Present Address: P. F. Greenwood John De Laeter Mass Spectrometry and WA Biogeochemistry Centres (M090), The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia Environ Sci Pollut Res (2011) 18:1070–1078 DOI 10.1007/s11356-010-0433-9