ИСТИНА

Humification (formation of humic substances) is one of the most important biospheric processes, which largely determined modern climate, the formation of the soils and terrestrial ecosystems. Humus carbon pool (1500 Gt) is three times larger than that of the biomass (550 Gt). Despite the planetary importance and the ubiquity of humic substances (soil, peats, sapropel, natural water), the processes of their formation, macromolecular structure and preservation mechanisms remain the subject of debate. The following questions remain unresolved: what are humic substances – the distinct class of organic compounds or a continuum of transformed biomolecules; how does the formation of dark-colored humic substances occur and what is the role of condensation reactions in this process; when the first humified soils could appear and under which communities. In this lecture, we will summarize the existing knowledge about the processes of humification, their application to the formation of paleosols and will discuss the potential role of phenoloxidase laccase in humification process from ancient soils to the modern biosphere.