Dirt Discovery Could Improve Climate Change Projections
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- Soil stores more carbon than earth's atmosphere and plants combined, making the speed of soil carbon's decomposition a critical variable in models used to predict changes to our...
- A new study has uncovered a surprising degree of variability in how quickly organic carbon decomposes in soils across the United States.
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Significant Variation Found in Soil Carbon Decomposition Rates Across the US
Table of Contents
The Importance of Soil Carbon
Soil stores more carbon than earth’s atmosphere and plants combined, making the speed of soil carbon’s decomposition a critical variable in models used to predict changes to our climate. Understanding this process is essential to addressing climate change.
New Research Highlights Decomposition Rate Variability
A new study has uncovered a surprising degree of variability in how quickly organic carbon decomposes in soils across the United States. Researchers found that even under controlled laboratory conditions, decomposition rates differed by as much as tenfold. This variation is largely attributed to differences in soil mineral and microbial properties – factors often simplified or underrepresented in current Earth systems models.
“For modeling simulations, we’ve traditionally simplified these variations by assuming carbon in similar soil types or in similar biomes decomposes at the same base rate, if no environmental changes are present. However, our findings show that the base rate actually varied a lot, even within the same soil or biome type. So this will really change a common practice,” says Chaoqun Lu,associate professor of ecology,evolution,and organismal biology at Iowa State University,and the corresponding author of the study.
why Current models Need Updating
Scientists developing Earth systems models – complex simulations that estimate the global effects of intertwined biological, geochemical, and physical processes – have long recognized the significant uncertainties surrounding soil carbon decomposition estimates. These models are vital tools for predicting future climate scenarios, but their accuracy is limited by