As Antarctica is strongly affected by climate change and global warming, the factors that mainly determine soil development might also shift from the dominance of physical to biochemical processes. Vegetation is restricted to the margins of the Antarctic continent with the Antarctic Peninsula being a region of patchily distributed vegetation. While on James Ross Island in the Weddell Sea only cryptogams can be found, on King George Island in the Southern Ocean also vascular plants are present. As rates of soil development and the build-up of soil organic matter are very low in these polar conditions, it can be hypothesized that vegetation patches comprise hot spots for biogeochemical soil processes. To analyze the effect of vegetation on soils in maritime Antarctica, we investigated vegetated and vegetation-free soils from both islands. On both islands, we found clearly higher carbon and nitrogen contents in vegetated soils. Using physical fractionation, we could demonstrate that the amount of free and occluded particulate organic matter is also higher in soils under vegetation, but at the same time, that clay-sized mineral-associated organic matter contributes most to carbon storage in all soils. The dominance of aromatic compounds in vegetation-free soils was disclosed by ¹³C NMR spectroscopy as well as a larger proportion of compounds with a lower molecular weight in vegetated soils. Thus, vegetation patches lead to soil organic matter containing higher amounts of bioavailable substrates that can be assumed to foster microbial activity and thus drive further soil development in a warmer future. However, in the cold arid environments a propagation of aridity might result in vegetation dieback and thus in a ceasing of biological soil activity driving a slowing of soil development.

由于南极洲受到气候变化和全球变暖的强烈影响，主要决定土壤发育的因素也可能从物理过程的主导地位转向生物化学过程的主导地位。植被仅限于南极大陆的边缘，南极半岛是植被分布不均的区域。虽然在威德尔海的詹姆斯罗斯岛只能找到隐花，但在南大洋的乔治王岛也有维管植物。由于在这些极地条件下土壤发育和土壤有机质的积累速度非常低，因此可以假设植被斑块包含生物地球化学土壤过程的热点。为了分析植被对南极洲海洋土壤的影响，我们调查了两个岛屿的植被和无植被土壤。在这两个岛屿上，我们发现植被土壤中的碳和氮含量明显更高。使用物理分馏，我们可以证明植被下土壤中游离和吸留的颗粒有机质的量也更高，但同时，粘土大小的矿物相关有机质对所有土壤中的碳储存贡献最大。芳香族化合物在无植被土壤中的主导地位由¹³ C NMR 光谱以及植被土壤中较大比例的低分子量化合物。因此，植被斑块导致土壤有机质含有更多的生物可利用底物，可以假定这些底物会促进微生物活动，从而在更温暖的未来推动土壤的进一步发育。然而，在寒冷干旱的环境中，干旱的蔓延可能会导致植被枯死，从而导致土壤生物活动停止，从而导致土壤发育放缓。