Phys.org April 11. 2024
Soil inorganic carbon (SIC) remain largely unquantified. A team researchers from many countries found that nearly one billion tons of inorganic carbon are lost to inland waters annually, and that future losses will reduce global SIC by 23 billion tons over the next 30 years under the current scenario. By compiling 223,593 field-based measurements and developing machine-learning models, they reported that global soils store 2305 ± 636 (±1 SD) billion tonnes of carbon as SIC over the top 2-meter depth. Under future scenarios, soil acidification associated with nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems would reduce global SIC up to 23 billion tonnes of carbon over the next 30 years, with India and China being the most affected. According to the researchers their synthesis of present-day land-water carbon inventories and inland-water carbonate chemistry reveals that at least 1.13 ± 0.33 billion tonnes of inorganic carbon is lost to inland-waters through soils annually, resulting in large but overlooked impacts on atmospheric and hydrospheric carbon dynamics… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The upper solum (mollic epipedon) shows a dark color because of the heavy accumulation of organic matter… Credit: ZHANG Ganlin