Carbon storage in soil

Quantification of changes in soil carbon dynamics, including SOM turnover rate and distribution of SOC with depth, is therefore critical for determining carbon storage in soils and for modeling soil carbon cycling. 

Schlesinger W. H. and Lichter J. (2001) Limited carbon storage in soil and litter of experimental forest plots under increased atmospheric CO2. Nature 411, 466-469. 

Soil contributes to a greater extent to total carbon storage than do above-ground vegetation in most forests (Johnson and Curtis 2001). The total amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the upper meter of soil is about 1500 x 1015 g C (Eswaran et al. 1993 Batjes 1996), and the global atmospheric pool of CO2 is about 750 x 1015 g C (Harden et al. 1992). The CO2 emission from soil into atmosphere is about 68.0-76.5 1015 g C per year, and this is more than 10 times the CO2 released from fossil fuel combustion (Raich and Potter 1995). Variations in SOC pools and SOM turnover rates, therefore, exert substantial impacts on the carbon cycles of terrestrial ecosystems in terms of carbon sequestration in soil and CO2 emission from soil. 

Scott NA, Tate KR, Ford-Robertson J, Giltrap DJ, Smith CT (1999) Soil carbon storage in plantation forests and pastures land-use change implications. Tellus B 51 326-335... 

Note that each state factor can influence soil carbon storage in two ways by influencing the quantity and quality of plant inputs and by influencing the residence time of organic matter in the soil. Figures 6.2-6.4 show the influence of three state factors on soil C storage. Many of the descriptions of state factors below touch upon the importance of controls on SOM stabilization, and these controls are discussed further in a following section. 

Masiello, C. A., Chadwick, O. A., Southon, I,Torn,M. S., and Harden, J. W. (2004). Weathering controls on mechanisms of carbon storage in grassland soils. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 18(4) GB4023. 

The oxalate-carbonate pathway in soil carbon storage the role of fungi and oxalotrophic bacteria... 

Rabenhorst, M. C. 1995. Carbon storage in tidal marsh soils. In R. Lai (ed.) Soils and Global Change. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL. 

Bogner, J., Spokas, K. 1995. Carbon storage in landfills, Chapter 5. In Lai, R. et al. (eds). Soils and global change. Advances in Soil Science Series. CRC Lewis Publications, Boca Raton, Florida. 

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