Soil Organic Carbon Change Monitored Over Large Areas
Abstract
Soils account for the largest fraction of terrestrial carbon (C) and thus are critically important in determining global C cycle dynamics. In North America, conversion of native prairies to agriculture over the past 150 years released 30-50% of soil organic carbon (SOC) stores [Mann, 1986]. Improved agricultural practices could recover much of this SOC, storing it in biomass and soil and thereby sequestering billions of tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). These practices involve increasing C inputs to soil (e.g., through crop rotation, higher biomass crops, and perennial crops) and decreasing losses (e.g., through reduced tillage intensity) [Janzen et al., 1998; Lal et al., 2003; Smith et al., 2007].
- Publication:
-
EOS Transactions
- Pub Date:
- November 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1029/2010EO470001
- Bibcode:
- 2010EOSTr..91..441B
- Keywords:
-
- Biogeosciences: Carbon cycling (4806);
- Global Change: Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling (0412;
- 0414;
- 0793;
- 4805;
- 4912);
- Global Change: Remote sensing (1855);
- Biogeosciences: Soils/pedology (1865);
- Biogeosciences: Agricultural systems