Dissolved organic compounds (DOC) are a heterogeneous mixture of organic molecules operationally defined as passing through a 0.2–0.7 µm filter in aquatic or soil solutions, encompassing low-molecular-weight metabolites (e.g., amino acids, sugars, organic acids) and high-molecular-weight macromolecules (e.g., humic substances, polysaccharides, proteins). They play central roles in biogeochemical cycles as substrates for microbial metabolism, precursors for disinfection by-products, and regulators of metal speciation, light attenuation, and redox processes. In research, DOC is quantified typically as dissolved organic carbon and characterized by spectroscopic, chromatographic, and high-resolution mass spectrometric methods to resolve sources, reactivity, and transformation pathways.
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