The role of microorganisms in transformations of sulphite in spruce forest soil.

Transformations of sulphite and the participation of microorganisms were investigated in samples of fermentative (A02) and humus (A03) horizons from a spruce forest. About 80% of sulphite were almost immediately oxidized abiotically to sulphate, less than 1% persisted in the soil for several days and almost 20% were converted to a form not demonstrable as sulphite or sulphate. Microorganisms accelerated the disappearance of less than 10% of the added sulphite.