We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Edited by
T. M. L. Wigley, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado,D. S. Schimel, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
Soils hold one of the largest near-surface pools in the global carbon cycle, containing at least 1,500 Pg C in organic forms, with a large proportion of this amount lying near the surface. Largely as a result of the human disturbance of soils, especially in cultivation, 36 Pg C was lost from soils between 1860 and 1960, with a current rate of loss of approximately 0.8 Pg C/yr. Thus, the loss of carbon from soils is a significant component of the biotic flux of CO2 to the atmosphere The soil carbon pool does not appear likely to house the missing sink. In fact, as a result of global warming, substantial amounts of CO2 are likely to be lost from soils.
Introduction
Soils hold one of the largest near-surface pools in the global carbon cycle, containing at least 1,500 Pg C in organic forms. Although some fractions of soil organic matter are very old, the global mean residence time for organic carbon in soils is approximately 30 years. The soil carbon pool is large and dynamic; increases or decreases in the amount of carbon in soils could have significant effects on the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (Trumbore et al., 1996). A large literature shows that human activities – especially cultivation – reduce the pool of carbon in soils and that most of this carbon is transferred to the atmosphere.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.