Soil organic carbon formation remains poorly understood despite its importance for human livelihoods. Uncertainties remain for the relative contributions of aboveground, root, and rhizodeposition inputs to particulate (POC) and mineral-associated (MAOC) organic carbon fractions. Combining a novel framework with isotope tracer studies, we quantified POC and MAOC formation efficiencies (% of C-inputs incorporated into each fraction). We found that rhizodeposition inputs have the highest MAOC formation efficiency (46%) as compared to roots (9%) or aboveground inputs (7%). In addition, rhizodeposition unexpectedly reduced POC formation, likely because it increased decomposition rates of new POC. Conversely, root biomass inputs have the highest POC formation efficiency (19%). Therefore, rhizodeposition and roots appear to play opposite but complementary roles for building MAOC and POC fractions.
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