Claim

In a national-scale survey of cropland soils in China, extracellular polymeric substances were a major microbial carbon input, with production comparable to cellular residues and incorporation into mineral-associated organic carbon comparable to or exceeding cellular residues in labeled microcosms.

Type OBSERVATIONAL · truth-evaluable: yes · status at snapshot: ACTIVE · created seq 14240

39 words; atomic claims are usually under 25a conjunction joins clauses that may be separately evaluablea comma-separated series may list several propositions

Referenced 138 times: checked 3, looked up by assistants 1, viewed 81, shared 53. A count of attention, not evidence.

Topics

Environment · 1efd24fe Earth science · 1efd24fe

Assessment

Supported

Score: 0.8720 under ledger-default@0.3.0 at snapshot 27745

3 of 4 review checks done · 1 counted · 2 by the author only

3 independent evidence lineages · review checks 1 of 4 · stability MEDIUM

Main unresolved issue: 7 counted evidence items have no independence review; repeats of one origin may be counted as several coverage:9c7b6352-5509-8332-aa2d-12f8aa5f236a

Not yet independently audited.Evidence points both ways.Evidence reviewed so far supports this claim, but only 1 of 4 review checks has been done.Every quoted passage was confirmed on the page when Galedra fetched it.

Why?

Strongest counted support: The source directly reports comparable extracellular-polymeric-substance production and comparable-or-higher incorporation into mineral-associated carbon. weight 2.000000 evidence

Strongest counted contradiction: A separate continental soil transect found cellular-residue carbon roughly ten times higher than estimated EPS carbon in SOC. weight 0.540000 evidence

Suppressed as dependent: The passage directly reports comparable production and comparable-or-greater incorporation of EPS-derived carbon relative to cellular residues.; Nature Geoscience reports comparable EPS and cellular-residue production and comparable-or-greater incorporation into mineral-associated organic carbon.

Review gaps: qualifiers reviewed, opposing search done, independence reviewed

What would most change this: One independent, direct measurement that contradicts this claim would move it from Supported to Unresolved.

Hide calculation

0.8720 under ledger-default@0.3.0 at snapshot 27745 · state Supported · Review checks: 1 of 4 · stability MEDIUM · 7 sources, 3 independent lineages

Model ledger-default@0.3.0 (the default model, not the answer) · snapshot 27745 · trace sha256:a770a783e3940f5d2b0fd1855aa7beda5251d25b0c02eeed23f39077040fceca

Last changed at entry seq 20240; nothing logged since has borne on this claim.

How the number was reached

Each counted link is weighed by multiplying the factors the model declares; a factor it does not declare is not shown. Every factor name below links to what that number means.

Link	Working	Weight	Counted as
bcf4aa40 support	relevance MODERATE 0.6 × observation DIRECT_TEXT 0.9 × interpretation 1 step, 1 − 0.15 × 1 0.850000 × authenticity UNVERIFIED 1.0 × extraction UNVERIFIED 1.0 × provenance INDEPENDENT 1.0 × edition NAMED_OR_UNRELATED 1	0.459000	0.459000
ed2f9dbc qualify	relevance MODERATE 0.6 × observation DIRECT_TEXT 0.9 × interpretation 0 steps, 1 − 0.15 × 0 1.000000 × authenticity UNVERIFIED 1.0 × extraction UNVERIFIED 1.0 × provenance INDEPENDENT 1.0 × edition NAMED_OR_UNRELATED 1	0.540000	0.000000 (non directional)
f7b2b191 support	relevance DIRECT 2.0 × observation DATASET_RESULT 0.9 × interpretation 0 steps, 1 − 0.15 × 0 1.000000 × authenticity UNVERIFIED 1.0 × extraction UNVERIFIED 1.0 × provenance INDEPENDENT 1.0 × edition NAMED_OR_UNRELATED 1	1.800000	0.000000 (dependent strongest only, kept 53fe5471)
3d35471a support	relevance DIRECT 2.0 × observation DATASET_RESULT 0.9 × interpretation 0 steps, 1 − 0.15 × 0 1.000000 × authenticity UNVERIFIED 1.0 × extraction UNVERIFIED 1.0 × provenance INDEPENDENT 1.0 × edition NAMED_OR_UNRELATED 1	1.800000	0.000000 (dependent strongest only, kept 53fe5471)
53fe5471 support	relevance DIRECT 2.0 × observation MEASUREMENT 1.0 × interpretation 0 steps, 1 − 0.15 × 0 1.000000 × authenticity UNVERIFIED 1.0 × extraction UNVERIFIED 1.0 × provenance INDEPENDENT 1.0 × edition NAMED_OR_UNRELATED 1	2.000000	2.000000
e5f7fc3f contradict	relevance MODERATE 0.6 × observation DATASET_RESULT 0.9 × interpretation 0 steps, 1 − 0.15 × 0 1.000000 × authenticity UNVERIFIED 1.0 × extraction UNVERIFIED 1.0 × provenance INDEPENDENT 1.0 × edition NAMED_OR_UNRELATED 1	0.540000	0.540000
951e1cc0 qualify	relevance STRONG 1.2 × observation DIRECT_TEXT 0.9 × interpretation 0 steps, 1 − 0.15 × 0 1.000000 × authenticity UNVERIFIED 1.0 × extraction UNVERIFIED 1.0 × provenance INDEPENDENT 1.0 × edition NAMED_OR_UNRELATED 1	1.080000	0.000000 (non directional)

prior 0.50 → log-odds 0.000000 + 1.919000 (the counted weights) = 1.919000 → probability 0.8720

Under neighbouring settings of the same model: 0.7930 to 0.9238, a spread of 0.1308.

Half-even rounding, six places for weights and four for the probability. The same inputs under the same model reproduce this exactly; that is what the trace hash above is for. How a score is worked out explains every factor, why it is there, and what the model sets it to.

Your view

Registered views

Nobody has registered a view yet.

Registered views are personal belief, not evidence: they never change Galedra's assessment. Affiliations are self-declared and shown only for groups of 5 or more.

Checked as part of

Statements this claim was broken out of. The claim is scored on its own; a statement's reading only counts its claims.

“A national-scale survey and isotope-labelling experiments found that microbial extracellular polymeric substances are a major soil carbon input and enter the...” · 1 claim · 29 September 2026
“In a national-scale survey of cropland soils in China, extracellular polymeric substances were a major microbial carbon input, with production comparable to...” · 1 claim · 28 September 2026
“Microbial extracellular polymeric substances contribute materially to soil carbon: a European transect found EPS-carbon averaged 1.6 ± 0.1% of soil organic...” · 2 claims · 28 September 2026

Evidence for

Nature Geoscience reports comparable EPS and cellular-residue production and comparable-or-greater incorporation into mineral-associated organic carbon.

From Microbial extracellular residues are a major source of mineral-associated soil carbon Read 2026-09-28 Relevance DIRECT Steps 0 Counted
A separate European study identifies EPS as a functionally important microbial residue in soil carbon cycling.

From Continental-scale drivers of soil microbial extracellular polymeric substances Read 2026-09-28 Relevance MODERATE Steps 1 Counted

This separate study supports the broader EPS-carbon mechanism, not the China-specific rate comparison by itself.
The passage directly reports comparable production and comparable-or-greater incorporation of EPS-derived carbon relative to cellular residues.

From Microbial extracellular residues are a major source of mineral-associated soil carbon Read 2026-09-28 Relevance DIRECT Steps 0 Counted
The source directly reports comparable extracellular-polymeric-substance production and comparable-or-higher incorporation into mineral-associated carbon.

From Microbial extracellular residues are a major source of mineral-associated soil carbon Read 2026-09-29 Relevance DIRECT Steps 0 Counted

Evidence against

A separate continental soil transect found cellular-residue carbon roughly ten times higher than estimated EPS carbon in SOC.

From Continental-scale drivers of soil microbial extracellular polymeric substances Read 2026-09-28 Relevance MODERATE Steps 0 Counted

This is independent evidence from a European transect, so it qualifies rather than directly overturning the China-specific survey claim.

Qualifications

The described incorporation experiment lasted 60 days, used three soil types, and reported three independent microcosms per condition.

From Microbial extracellular residues are a major source of mineral-associated soil carbon Read 2026-09-29 Relevance STRONG Steps 0 Counted

Material time-range and sample-scope limitation on the microcosm comparison.
The incorporation comparison is explicitly from 13C-labelled microcosm experiments, not a direct field measurement of long-term incorporation.

From Microbial extracellular residues are a major source of mineral-associated soil carbon Read 2026-09-29 Relevance MODERATE Steps 0 Counted

Separates field survey production from experimental incorporation.

Suppressed as dependent

Evidence	Group	Kept instead
c596de82		53fe5471
809409b3		53fe5471

Inferences

Concluded from

None.

Used as a premise in

None.

An inference is interpretation, not evidence: it never changes the assessment of its conclusion. Each premise is a claim with its own evidence.

Threads

None. Threads are for disagreements about how a determination was made — a statement whose figures are not in the passage it rests on, two sources that may share an origin. Something about the world belongs in the evidence above.

Claim edges

None. Edges are stored and displayed; v0.1 does not propagate probability across them.

Review checklist

Review checks: 1 of 4

3 checks by this claim's own author, alongside the independent review above. 1 OPPOSING EVIDENCE SEARCH · 1 QUALIFIER CHECK · 1 EVIDENCE VERIFICATION. A check by the person who recorded a claim does not raise its review coverage.

Check	Done	By
qualifiers reviewed	no
opposing search done	no
independence reviewed	no
primary source reviewed	yes	bcf4aa40, ed2f9dbc, f7b2b191, 3d35471a, 53fe5471, e5f7fc3f, 951e1cc0

Summary

Supported. The main support is: A separate European study identifies EPS as a functionally important microbial residue in soil carbon cycling. 790bd7a0

Against that, contradiction: A separate continental soil transect found cellular-residue carbon roughly ten times higher than estimated EPS carbon in SOC. ca9f0ff4

2 further items repeat the same origin and are not independent evidence. c596de82809409b3

Qualifier: The incorporation comparison is explicitly from 13C-labelled microcosm experiments, not a direct field measurement of long-term incorporation. 953d1a49

Qualifier: The described incorporation experiment lasted 60 days, used three soil types, and reported three independent microcosms per condition. b200faba

A search for evidence in the opposing direction found something; see the counted evidence. a5218919

Generated by stub-v0.1; every sentence cites graph ids.

Contribution history

seq	event	detail
14240	APPENDED
14241	ACCEPT	AUTOMATIC_AFTER_VALIDATION
14250	LINK_EVIDENCE	by 1efd24fe (accepted)
14258	LINK_EVIDENCE	by 1efd24fe (accepted)
14270	TASK_RESULT	by 1efd24fe (accepted)
14300	TASK_RESULT	by 1efd24fe (accepted)
14607	TASK_RESULT	by 1efd24fe (accepted)
20239	LINK_EVIDENCE	by 1efd24fe (accepted)

Score trace

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