Journal ArticleDOI
Total carbon and nitrogen in the soils of the world
TLDR
In this article, a discrepancy of approximately 350 × 1015 g (or Pg) of C in two recent estimates of soil carbon reserves worldwide is evaluated using the geo-referenced database developed for the World Inventory of Soil Emission Potentials (WISE) project.Abstract:
Summary
The soil is important in sequestering atmospheric CO2 and in emitting trace gases (e.g. CO2, CH4 and N2O) that are radiatively active and enhance the ‘greenhouse’ effect. Land use changes and predicted global warming, through their effects on net primary productivity, the plant community and soil conditions, may have important effects on the size of the organic matter pool in the soil and directly affect the atmospheric concentration of these trace gases.
A discrepancy of approximately 350 × 1015 g (or Pg) of C in two recent estimates of soil carbon reserves worldwide is evaluated using the geo-referenced database developed for the World Inventory of Soil Emission Potentials (WISE) project. This database holds 4353 soil profiles distributed globally which are considered to represent the soil units shown on a 1/2° latitude by 1/2° longitude version of the corrected and digitized 1:5 M FAO–UNESCO Soil Map of the World.
Total soil carbon pools for the entire land area of the world, excluding carbon held in the litter layer and charcoal, amounts to 2157–2293 Pg of C in the upper 100 cm. Soil organic carbon is estimated to be 684–724 Pg of C in the upper 30 cm, 1462–1548 Pg of C in the upper 100 cm, and 2376–2456 Pg of C in the upper 200 cm. Although deforestation, changes in land use and predicted climate change can alter the amount of organic carbon held in the superficial soil layers rapidly, this is less so for the soil carbonate carbon. An estimated 695–748 Pg of carbonate-C is held in the upper 100 cm of the world's soils. Mean C: N ratios of soil organic matter range from 9.9 for arid Yermosols to 25.8 for Histosols. Global amounts of soil nitrogen are estimated to be 133–140 Pg of N for the upper 100 cm. Possible changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen dynamics caused by increased concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and the predicted associated rise in temperature are discussed.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change
TL;DR: This work has suggested that several environmental constraints obscure the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of substrate decomposition, causing lower observed ‘apparent’ temperature sensitivity, and these constraints may, themselves, be sensitive to climate.
Journal ArticleDOI
The vertical distribution of soil organic carbon and its relation to climate and vegetation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the association of soil organic carbon (SOC) content with climate and soil texture at different soil depths, and tested the hypothesis that vegetation type, through patterns of allocation, is a dominant control on the vertical distribution of SOC.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997-2009)
G. R. van der Werf,James T. Randerson,Louis Giglio,Louis Giglio,G. J. Collatz,Mingquan Mu,Prasad S. Kasibhatla,Douglas C. Morton,Ruth DeFries,Yufang Jin,T. T. van Leeuwen +10 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a revised version of the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford-Approach (CASA) biogeochemical model and improved satellite-derived estimates of area burned, fire activity, and plant productivity to calculate fire emissions for the 1997-2009 period on a 0.5° spatial resolution with a monthly time step.
Journal ArticleDOI
Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region
Charles Tarnocai,Josep G. Canadell,Edward A. G. Schuur,Peter Kuhry,Galina Mazhitova,Sergei Zimov +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reported a new estimate of the carbon pools in soils of the northern permafrost region, including deeper layers and pools not accounted for in previous analyses.
Journal ArticleDOI
Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change
TL;DR: The maximum sustainable technical potential of biochar to mitigate climate change is estimated, which shows that it has a larger climate-change mitigation potential than combustion of the same sustainably procured biomass for bioenergy, except when fertile soils are amended while coal is the fuel being offset.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Soil carbon pools and world life zones
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
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