A feasibility study on the possible use of cellulose content for characterizing histosols (organic soils)

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Abstract
Quantitative fractionation of a sphagnum peat (Sphagno‐fibrist) and sedge peat (Sapric Medihemist) yielded rather heterogenous hemicellulose and holocellulose fractions. In contrast, cellulose fractions isolated from the peats were not only largely similar to cellulose isolated from a pure plant material (wood), but were also as readily solubilized by a specifically cellulolytic enzyme preparation as a UC14 ‐ labelled cellulose known to be free of lignins and hemicelluloses. The isolated peat celluloses were therefore judged to be relatively uncontaminated with other plant constituents, unaltered and, for the first time5, shown to be amenable to enzymatic hydrolysis, and thus biodegradation. As such, measurement of the cellulose contents of peats offers an avenue for assessing the relative proportion of undecomposed plant materials in peat, and thus by implication, their degree of decomposition, as one of the criteria for their classification and characterization, or for testing various other systems of classification.