a b s t r a c t Lime is commonly used to overcome soil acidification in agricultural production systems; however, its impact on inorganic and organic soil carbon dynamics remains largely unknown. In a column experi-ment, we monitored rhizosphere effects on lime dissolution, CO 2 effluxes, and the concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in leachate from an acidic Kandosol. The experiment consisted of four treatments viz: soil only (control), soil þ lime, soil þ wheat, and soil þ lime þ wheat. We measured CO 2 -C effluxes at 7, 43 and 98 days after planting (DAP) and leachate was collected at 56 and 101 DAP. The soil CO 2 -C efflux rate increased significantly with lime addition at 7 and 43 DAP compared to control. At 43 DAP, the largest increase in CO 2 -C effluxes was observed in the lime þ wheat treatment. However, at 98 DAP similar CO 2 -C effluxes were observed from wheat and lime þ wheat treatments, suggesting that most of the lime was dissolved in the lime þ wheat treatment. Both DOC and DIC concentrations in the leachate increased significantly with lime and wheat only treatments (cf. control). In contrast to DOC, there was an increase in the DIC concentration in the soil leachate from lime þ wheat treatment columns at 101 DAP (significant wheat  lime interaction), thus, accentuating the pronounced role of wheat roots. We conclude that plant mediated dissolution of lime increased the concentration of DIC in the soil leachate, while both liming and presence of plants enhanced DOC leaching.