Organic matter is converted from organic carbon. Why is humus represented by carbon instead of converted?

Answer:

However, humus is an important part of soil organic matter, is formed by the decomposition of organic matter in the soil, is a black amorphous organic colloid. Humus is organic polymer compound with colloidal acid, high content of nitrogen. The humus must be organic carbon content, and with the soil humus carbon content was positively correlated.Humus is a kind of soil organic matter, while soil organic matter also contains fresh organic matter and partially decomposed organic matter

Soil organic matter refers to all organic matter in the soil, due to the size of the organic matter content of different soil in a composition is more complex, but are not necessarily organic carbon containing material, so there is a mathematical relationship between soil organic matter and organic carbon. In general, we are the first to measure the content of soil organic carbon, and then use the formula to convert the content of organic matter.

Therefore, only there is a certain relationship between soil carbon content and soil organic matter, high carbon content of soil humus certain, but it does not explain the soil organic matter, because organic matter contains not only the humus, also contains many other organic substances are not decomposed.