The term Natural Organic Matter (NOM) means different things to people working in different fields. This fact makes it very difficult any comparison of results and, sometimes, even any dialogue between people belonging to different NOM "communities". Recently, I've tried to collect all terms (and their meanings) related to NOM that could be found in the literature. I compiled all the acronyms found in a paper published in ENVIRON. CHEM. LETTERS. The list published in this article is not exhaustive and I plan to update it regularly in this webpage. Readers are kindly requested to send me any acronym they find that are not listed in the tables. My aim is not a pure collector's activity. The final objective is to clarify which type of NOM should be determined as a function of the problem. Measuring DOC and/or the absorbance at 245 nm may not always be the best answer... In the tables below, only acronyms and their meanings are listed. A detailed discussion and references can be found at doi:10.1007/s10311-008-0158-x.
Acronyms related to NOM origin
| Acronym | Meaning |
| AOM | Aquogenic organic matter |
| AOM | Algogenic organic matter |
| AROM | Aquogenic refractory organic matter |
| AntOM | Anthropogenic organic matter |
| EDOC | Excreted DOC |
| EOC | Excreted organic carbon |
| EPS | Exopolymeric substances |
| IOM | Intracellular organic matter |
| PDOC | Phytoplankton extracellular products |
| POM | Pedogenic organic matter |
| PROM | Pedogenic refractory organic matter |
| SedOM | Sediment organic matter |
| SOM | Soil organic matter |
| TOM | Peat organic matter |
| TOM | Terrestrial organic matter, terrigenous organic matter |
Acronyms related to NOM biochemical categories
| Acronym | Meaning |
| CSP | Coomassie-stainned proteinaceous particles (Long and Azam 1996) |
| DCH | Total dissolved carbohydrates |
| DCHO | Dissolved carbohydrates |
| DCHO | Total dissolved carbohydrates |
| DFAA | Dissolved free amino acids |
| DFAA | Total dissolved free amino acids |
| DFCHO | Dissolved free monosaccharides |
| DFCHO | Dissolved free carbohydrates |
| DLCFaAc | Dissolved long chain fatty acids |
| DPCHO | Total dissolved polysaccharides |
| DPROT | Total dissolved proteins |
| DSCFaAc | Dissolved short chain fatty acids |
| DTAA | Dissolved total amino acids |
| DTCHO | Dissolved total carbohydrates |
| HCl-CHO | Dilute-HCL (0.09 M) hydrolyzable polysaccharides |
| HR-CHO | HCl-resistant polysaccharides |
| MCHO | Monosaccharides (fraction detected without acid hydrolysis) |
| PAA | Particulate amino acids |
| PCHO | Polysaccharides |
| PPROT | Particulate proteins |
| SPCHO | Water-soluble particulate carbohydrates |
| TCHO | Total carbohydrates |
| TDAA | Total dissolved amino acids |
| TDCHO | Total dissolved carbohydrates |
| THAA | Total hydrolyzable amino acid |
| TPCHO | Total particulate carbohydrates |
| TPOC | Total particulate organic carbon |
| URA | Total uronic acids |
Acronyms related to NOM physical fractionation methods
| Acronym | Meaning |
| CDOC | Colloidal and dissolved organic carbon |
| COC | Colloidal organic carbon |
| COM | Colloidal organic matter |
| CPOC | Coarse particulate organic carbon |
| CPOM | Coarse particulate organic matter |
| DNOM | Dissolved natural organic matter |
| DOC | Dissolved organic carbon |
| DOM | Dissolved organic matter |
| DOP | Pico- and nano-detrital organic particles |
| FPOC | Fine particulate organic carbon |
| FPOM | Fine particulate organic matter |
| HMW-DOC | High molecular weight DOC |
| LMWOC | Low molecular weight organic carbon |
| POC | Particulate organic carbon |
| POM | Particulate organic matter |
| SPOM | Suspended particulate organic matter |
| TPOC | Total particulate organic carbon |
| UDOC | Ultrafiltered dissolved organic carbon |
| UDOM | Ultrafiltered dissolved organic matter |
| UOC | Ultrafiltered organic carbon |
Acronyms related to NOM chemical fractionation methods
| Acronym | Meaning |
| ABOM | Aquagenic or autochtonous biopolymers (isolation by addition of 95% ethanol) |
| AHS | Aquatic humic substances |
| AHS | Hydrophobic acids (isolated according to Leenheer 1981) |
| BaS | Bases (isolated according to Imai et al. 2001) |
| Char | Hydrophilic charged compounds (adsorbed by Amberlite IRA-958) |
| DHM | Dissolved humic matter |
| FA | Fulvic acid (fraction of humic substances that is soluble in water under all pH conditions) |
| FA | Hydrophobic acid fraction (sorbed on XAD-8 resin at pH 2 and eluted at pH 13) |
| HA | Humic acid (fraction of humic substances that is not soluble in water under acidic conditions (pH < 2) but is soluble at higher pH values) |
| HA | Hydrophobic acids (adsorbed by Supelite DAX-8, according to Aiken et al. 1992) |
| HbA | Hydrophobic acid fraction (XAD-8 separation) |
| HbN | Hydrophobic neutral fraction (XAD-8 separation) |
| HIA | Hydrophilic acids (isolated according to Leenheer and Huffman 1976) |
| HiA | Hydrophilic acids (isolated according to Leenheer 1981) |
| HIB | Hydrophilic bases ( isolated according to Leenheer and Huffman 1976) |
| HI | Hydrophilic fraction (XAD-8 separation) |
| HIN | Hydrophilic neutrals (isolated according to Leenheer and Huffman 1976) |
| HiN | Hydrophilic neutrals (isolated according to Leenheer 1981) |
| HOA | Hydrophobic acids (isolated according to Leenheer and Huffman 1976) |
| HOB | hydrophobic bases (isolated according to Leenheer and Huffman 1976) |
| HON | Hydrophobic neutrals (isolated according to Leenheer and Huffman 1976) |
| HoN | Hydrophobic neutrals (isolated according to Leenheer 1981) |
| HPIA | Hydrophilic acid fraction (contained in the XAD-8 resin effluent at pH 2 that sorbs on a XAD-4 resin and is eluted at pH 13) |
| HPO neutrals | Hydrophobic neutral fraction (extracted from the XAD-8 resin by Soxhlet extraction with acetonitrile and water) |
| Neut | Passed through all resin columns (XAD-8, XAD-4, Amberlite IRA-958) |
| NHS | Non humic substances (fraction not adsorbable on XAD-2 or XAD-8) |
| NOM-CH | Carbohydrate-rich fraction (adsorptive behavior on a cross-linked polyvinyl pyrrolidone, PVP, polymer according to Lowe (1975)) |
| NOM-PP | Polyphenolic-rich fraction (adsorptive behavior on a cross-linked polyvinyl pyrrolidone, PVP, polymer according to Lowe (1975)) |
| PHA | Peat humic acid |
| ROM | Refractory organic matter |
| ROS | Refractory organic substances |
| TA | Transphilic acids (adsorbed by Amberlite XAD-4, according to Aiken et al. 1992) |
| WFA | Water fulvic acid |
| WHA | Water humic acid |
| XAD-4 acids | Fraction sorbed on XAD-4 resin (effluent of XAD-8 resin at pH 1.95) and eluted by dilute base |
| YOA | Yellow organic acids |
Acronyms related to lability criteria
| Acronym | Meaning |
| AOC | Assimilable organic carbon |
| BDOC | Biodegradable dissolved organic carbon |
| BOD | Biochemical oxygen demand |
| BOM | Biodegradable organic matter |
| COD | Chemical oxygen demand |
| LDOC | Labile dissolved organic carbonn |
| LDOM | Labile dissolved organic matter |
| LOCP | Labile organic carbon pool |
| ROCP | Recalcitrant organic carbon pool |
| UDOC | Utilizable dissolved organic carbon |