<
https://theconversation.com/trillions-of-tonnes-of-carbon-locked-in-soil-has-been-left-out-of-environmental-models-and-its-on-the-move-227597>
"We all know about the carbon in Earth’s atmosphere, and probably about the
carbon contained in plants and the bodies of animals. But a substantial
fraction of the carbon in the planet’s land-based ecosystems is held in
something so obvious we might overlook it: soil.
Even if we do think about carbon in soil, we are usually thinking of carbon in
organic matter in the soil, such as plant litter, bacteria or animal waste.
However, the inorganic, mineral component of soil also contains carbon.
In a new study just published in
Science, we show there is much more soil
inorganic carbon than anybody realised – and that it may be a surprisingly big
player in Earth’s carbon cycle.
We analysed more than 200,000 soil measurements from around the world to
calculate that the top two metres of soil globally holds about 2.3 trillion
tonnes of inorganic carbon. This is about five times more carbon than found in
all the world’s terrestrial vegetation. We estimate some 23 billion tonnes (1%)
of this carbon may be released over the next 30 years, with poorly understood
effects on Earth’s lands, waters and atmosphere."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
