Guenet B. auteur aut IRD Juarez S. auteur aut IRD Bardoux G. auteur aut IRD Pouteau V. auteur aut IRD Cheviron N. auteur aut IRD Marrauld C. auteur aut IRD Abbadie Luc auteur aut IRD Chenu C. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng Soil degradation due to erosion or to soil organic matter (SOM) depletion is known to reduce the ecosystems services performed by soils. Amendments of organic matter are often proposed to restore the soil quality as they may increase water holding capacity, microbial activity and decrease erosion. In this work, we tested the ability of microbial communities from a soil very depleted in organic matter to mineralize fresh organic matter. We used a soil deprived of organic matter inputs since 1929 as a model of degraded soil. We amended it with (13)C-cellulose or (13)C-straw at two different levels (0.5 g C kg(-1) of soil vs. 5 g C kg(-1)). The same treatments were performed on an arable soil as control. The soils were incubated at 20 degrees C during 209 days and the amount of CO(2) released and delta(13)C-CO(2) were monitored during incubation. We measured the microbial biomass by fumigation extraction and determined the metabolic profiles of microorganisms by using Biolog (R) ECOPlates. The straw and cellulose were mineralized without lag-time in both soils. It suggested that the bare fallow soil had kept its metabolic capacities to degrade straw and cellulose, but at a lower rate when compared to the arable control soil. The Shannon index (H) calculated from Biolog (R) ECOPlates was very high in the two types of soils, which suggest that the two microbial communities were ubiquist. Moreover, the bare fallow microbial community was efficient to mineralize the amino acids and the mannitol in the Biolog (R) ECOPlates. Consequently, we assumed that the bare fallow soil microbial community had kept its metabolic capacities because of the microbial turnover. The dead microbial biomass might be an important substrate for the microbial community explaining why it may easily mineralize labile organic matter such as straw or cellulose. specialized Fresh organic matter (13)C-straw (13)C-cellulose Mineralization Bare fallow soil Arable soil Biolog (R) ECOPlates 068 074 076 51 87-93 2011 0929-1393 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/PAR00008318 10.1016/j.apsoil.2011.07.006 0929-1393 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/PAR00008318 IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2012-02-01 2017-08-23 PAR00008318 fre