Climate Fact: Temperature and Soil Carbon Release
In Brief: Compared to the 1980′s, more carbon is now being released into the atmosphere from the soil.
How changes in the carbon cycle affect Earth’s temperature and how Earth’s temperature affects the carbon cycle are two key questions for climate research. In 2008, there was a net release of about 98 petagrams (98 billion metric tons) of carbon from the soil into the atmosphere. Since 1989, there has been a 0.1 billion metric ton increase in this annual amount of carbon released from the soils. A key question is whether this increased release is in the form of newly mobilized “old” carbon that had been stored in the soils or whether the soils are also taking up more carbon from the atmosphere and there is more “new” carbon that is being cycled at a faster rate. “New” carbon being cycled at a faster rate would imply a general acceleration of the carbon cycle.
Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
Source: Bond-Lamberty, B and Thomson, Allison. “Temperature-associated increases in the global soil respiration record.” Nature 464 (2010): 579-582.
