The quantification of organic detritus on snow revealed that approximately 0.6 kg N ha−1
a−1 isdeposited as particulate organic matter. Decomposition and
mineralization of this organic matter was suggested to be
the dominant N transformation process in the initial soils
at the Damma Glacier (Brankatschk et al., 2011), which is
declared as initial phase in Fig. 2. Also, the marker genes
for the breakdown of organic matter, chitinase (chiA) and
protease (aprA) were detected in the initial soils. The abundance
of chiA gene was 7 × 105 copies g−1, and the aprA
gene was quantified with 6 × 106copies g−1. Activities of
other N turnover processes such as nitrification and denitrification
were low (< 2 nmol N g−1 h−1) in the initial soils(Brankatschk et al., 2011).