Second, soil structure results from a complex relationship between organic matter and the mineral matrix, with a degree of physical protection from decomposition of SOM often being conferred by its adsorption onto mineral surfaces. SOM contains nutrients that, when decomposed by micro-organisms (mineralized), are transformed into mineral forms that are available to plants. However, the physical protection of SOM can cause the supply of N to plants to be smaller from clay soils, which protect SOM, than from sandy soils containing identical amounts of SOM . In addition, the very structure of the compounds mineralized confers a degree of protection by prevent- ing decomposer organisms or their exoenzymes from accessing the nutrients in them. Certainly, some soil carbon, and by association probably some soil N, is centuries old .