What are SOM and SOC?

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the carbon component of soil organic matter (SOM)

On average, SOM contains 58% carbon, which means that it can be roughly converted organic carbon to SOM using a factor of 1.72

SOM is made up mostly of carbon, but also contains hydrogen and oxygen, and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, potassium, and many more

Carbon is added to the soil by the process of photosynthesis: carbon dioxide is “fixed” by plants (and certain microbes)

The fixed carbon makes it way to the soil through crop residues as well as root exudation