https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01480573/document

Soil carbon 4 per mille

Soil organic carbon storage as a key function of soils - A review of drivers and indicators at various scales

Soil organic matter (SOM) anchors global terrestrial productivity and food and fiber supply. SOM retains water and soil nutrients and stores more global carbon than do plants and the atmosphere combined. SOM is also decomposed by microbes, returning CO2, a greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, soil carbon stocks have been widely lost or degraded through land use changes and unsustainable forest and agricultural practices. To understand its structure and function and to maintain and restore SOM, we need a better appreciation of soil organic carbon (SOC) saturation capacity and the retention of above- and belowground inputs in SOM. Our analysis suggests root inputs are approximately five times more likely than an equivalent mass of aboveground litter to be stabilized as SOM. Microbes, particularly fungi and bacteria, and soil faunal food webs strongly influence SOM decomposition at shallower depths, whereas mineral associations drive stabilization at depths greater than ∼30 cm. Global uncertaint...

The Ecology of Soil Carbon: Pools, Vulnerabilities, and Biotic and Abiotic Controls

Climate change may accelerate decomposition of soil carbon leading to a reinforcing cycle of further warming and soil carbon loss. This Review considers the uncertainties and modelling challenges involved in projecting soil responses to warming.

/pdf/managing-uncertainty-in-soil-carbon-feedbacks-to-climate-lrb5fhtrwi.pdf

Managing uncertainty in soil carbon feedbacks to climate change

Soils play an essential role in the global cycling of carbon and understanding the stabilisation mechanisms behind the preservation of soil organic carbon (SOC) pools is of globally recognised significance. Until recently, research into SOC stabilisation has predominantly focused on acidic soil environments and the interactions between SOC and aluminium (Al) or iron (Fe). The interactions between SOC and calcium (Ca) have typically received less attention, with fewer studies conducted in alkaline soils. Although it has widely been established that exchangeable Ca (CaExch) positively correlates with SOC concentration and its resistance to oxidation, the exact mechanisms behind this relationship remain largely unidentified. This synthesis paper critically assesses available evidence on the potential role of Ca in the stabilisation of SOC and identifies research topics that warrant further investigation. Contrary to the common view of the chemistry of base cations in soils, chemical modelling indicates that Ca2+ can readily exchange its hydration shell and create inner sphere complexes with organic functional groups. This review therefore argues that both inner- and outer-sphere bridging by Ca2+ can play an active role in the stabilisation of SOC. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) can influence occluded SOC stability through its role in the stabilisation of aggregates; however, it could also play an unaccounted role in the direct sorption and inclusion of SOC. Finally, this review highlights the importance of pH as a potential predictor of SOC stabilisation mechanisms mediated by Al- or Fe- to Ca, and their respective effects on SOC dynamics.

/pdf/calcium-mediated-stabilisation-of-soil-organic-carbon-3l8k4flrif.pdf

Calcium-mediated stabilisation of soil organic carbon

Rising temperature can increase soil organic matter decomposition and CO2 emissions. In a 4,000 km north–south transect in Chile and Antarctica, soil geochemistry, which can be modified by climate, is the dominant direct control of carbon storage. Soils are an important site of carbon storage1. Climate is generally regarded as one of the primary controls over soil organic carbon1,2, but there is still uncertainty about the direction and magnitude of carbon responses to climate change. Here we show that geochemistry, too, is an important controlling factor for soil carbon storage. We measured a range of soil and climate variables at 24 sites along a 4,000-km-long north–south transect of natural grassland and shrubland in Chile and the Antarctic Peninsula, which spans a broad range of climatic and geochemical conditions. We find that soils with high carbon content are characterized by substantial adsorption of carbon compounds onto mineral soil and low rates of respiration per unit of soil carbon; and vice versa for soils with low carbon content. Precipitation and temperature were only secondary predictors for carbon storage, respiration, residence time and stabilization mechanisms. Correlations between climatic variables and carbon variables decreased significantly after removing relationships with geochemical predictors. We conclude that the interactions of climatic and geochemical factors control soil organic carbon storage and turnover, and must be considered for robust prediction of current and future soil carbon storage.

Soil carbon storage controlled by interactions between geochemistry and climate

We study the existence and uniqueness of wavefronts to the scalar reaction-diffusion equations $u_{t}(t,x) = \Delta u(t,x) - u(t,x) + g(u(t-h,x)),$ with monotone delayed reaction term $g: \R_+ \to \R_+$ and $h >0$. We are mostly interested in the situation when the graph of $g$ is not dominated by its tangent line at zero, i.e. when the condition $g(x) \leq g'(0)x,$ $x \geq 0$, is not satisfied. It is well known that, in such a case, a special type of rapidly decreasing wavefronts (pushed fronts) can appear in non-delayed equations (i.e. with $h=0$). One of our main goals here is to establish a similar result for $h>0$. We prove the existence of the minimal speed of propagation, the uniqueness of wavefronts (up to a translation) and describe their asymptotics at $-\infty$. We also present a new uniqueness result for a class of nonlocal lattice equations.

Pushed traveling fronts in monostable equations with monotone delayed reaction

Suelos de Chile

We study the wavefront solutions
of the scalar reaction-diffusion equations $u_{t}(t,x) = \Delta u(t,x) - u(t,x) + g(u(t-h,x)),$ with monotone reaction term $g: \mathbb{R}_{+} → \mathbb{R}_+$ and $h >0$. We are mostly interested
in the situation when the graph of $g$ is not dominated by its tangent line at zero, i.e. when the condition $g(x) \leq g'(0)x,$ $x \geq 0$, is not satisfied. It is well known that, in such a case, a special type of rapidly decreasing wavefronts (pushed fronts) can appear in non-delayed equations (i.e. with $h=0$). One of our main goals here is to establish a similar result for $h>0$. To this end, we describe the asymptotics of all wavefronts (including critical and non-critical fronts) at $-\infty$.
 We also prove the uniqueness of wavefronts (up to a translation). In addition, a new uniqueness result for a class of nonlocal lattice equations is presented.

Existence of almost automorphic solutions for abstract delayed differential equations is established. Using ergodicity, exponential dichotomy and Bi-almost automorphicity on the homogeneous part, sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of almost automorphic solutions are given.

Manuel Casanova Pinto

Papers

Soil carbon storage controlled by interactions between geochemistry and climate

Pushed traveling fronts in monostable equations with monotone delayed reaction

Suelos de Chile

Pushed traveling fronts in monostable equations with monotone delayed reaction

Almost automorphic delayed differential equations and Lasota-Wazewska model