Soil not as carbon absorbent as previously thought

This discovery makes it even more urgent find ways of cutting carbon emissions in the atmosphere

Environmental

By Allie Sanchez

New research from the University of California revealed that soil is far less able to integrate carbon into its composition.

Carbon dating technology revealed that current soil carbon is around 3,000 years old, far older than the 450 year old age previously estimated by old system models. The findings mean that soil is far less able to absorb carbon.

"This work indicates that soils have a weaker capacity to soak up carbon than we have been assuming over the past few decades," explained James Randerson, senior author of a new study on the subject to be published in the journal Science. "It means we have to be even more proactive in finding ways to cut emissions of fossil fuels to limit the magnitude and impacts of climate warming."

"A substantial amount of the greenhouse gas that we thought was being taken up and stored in the soil is actually going to stay in the atmosphere," added study co-author Steven Allison, UCI associate professor of ecology & evolutionary biology and Earth system science.

The authors added that it would be problematic to assume that the earth could keep pace with the carbon being emitted into the atmosphere, given its slow capacity to absorb the element.

"If we waited 300, 400, 1,000 years, then that carbon -- we think -- would go into the soil. But that's not going to help us in dealing with climate change, which is happening now," Allison concluded.
 

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