The knowns, known unknowns and unknowns of sequestration of soil organic carbon
2013
Stockmann, Uta | Adams, Mark A. | Crawford, John W. | Field, Damien J. | Henakaarchchi, Nilusha | Jenkins, Meaghan | Minasny, Budiman | Mcbratney, Alex B. | Courcelles, Vivien de Remy De | Singh, Kanika | Wheeler, Ichsani | Abbott, Lynette | Angers, Denis A. | Baldock, Jeffrey | Bird, Michael | Brookes, Philip C. | Chenu, Claire | Jastrow, Julie D. | Lal, Rattan | Lehmann, Johannes | O’donnell, Anthony G. | Parton, William J. | Whitehead, David | Zimmermann, Michael | Faculty of Agriculture and Environment ; The University of Sydney | School of Earth and Environment and UWA ; The University of Western Australia (UWA) | Agriculture and Agri-Food (AAFC) | Land and Water and Sustainable Agriculture ; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [Australia] (CSIRO) | School of Earth and Environmental Sciences [Australia] ; James Cook University (JCU) | Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) ; James Cook University (JCU) | Rothamsted Research ; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) | Biogéochimie et écologie des milieux continentaux (Bioemco) ; École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-AgroParisTech-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Biosciences Division ; Argonne National Laboratory [Lemont] (ANL) | School of Environment and Natural Resources [OSU] (SENR) ; The Ohio State University [Columbus] (OSU) | Cornell University [New York] | Faculty of Science ; Suez Canal University | Colorado State University [Fort Collins] (CSU) | New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre ; Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research [Lincoln] | Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, Institute of Soil Research ; Universität für Bodenkultur Wien = University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences [Vienne, Autriche] (BOKU)
Soil contains approximately 2344 Gt (1 gigaton = 1 billion tonnes) of organic carbon globally and is the largest terrestrial pool of organic carbon. Small changes in the soil organic carbon stock could result in significant impacts on the atmospheric carbon concentration. The fluxes of soil organic carbon vary in response to a host of potential environmental and anthropogenic driving factors. Scientists worldwide are contemplating questions such as: 'What is the average net change in soil organic carbon due to environmental conditions or management practices?', 'How can soil organic carbon sequestration be enhanced to achieve some mitigation of atmospheric carbon dioxide?' and 'Will this secure soil quality?'. These questions are far reaching, because maintaining and improving the world's soil resource is imperative to providing sufficient food and fibre to a growing population. Additional challenges are expected through climate change and its potential to increase food shortages. This review highlights knowledge of the amount of carbon stored in soils globally, and the potential for carbon sequestration in soil. It also discusses successful methods and models used to determine and estimate carbon pools and fluxes. This knowledge and technology underpins decisions to protect the soil resource.
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