Too many people focus on surface soils, and too many people ignore Manganese (Mn)! If you don't know about Mn's role in ecosystems processes, the introduction is expertly written by Dr. Angela Possinger (also the primary author) and is worth reading over. We show that Mn abundance at the continental scale is highly variable, but that it can be predictive of certain soil carbon metrics (especially lignin abundance). But, the effects of Mn is pretty unique on location, and at each horizon in the soil illustrating the old addage "it's all about site specificity!"
Too many people focus on surface soils, and they're missing out on most of the (soil carbon) action when they do. Here we show that ecosystems favoring forests (wetter, more iron and aluminum) release more CO2 compared to grassland-like ecosystems (dryer, more calcium and magnesium). As our earth warms, we need to consider not only how surface soils will change due to management, but how subsurface soils (where most of the carbon is) will respond due to climate change.