Can Soil Actually Capture Carbon? Maybe Not

Researchers may have miscalculated soil’s ability to capture carbon...meaning our current global climate models might be off. So now what?!
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Ever clean your room by shoving everything under the bed? What if we could do this with all the extra carbon dioxide in our atmosphere—just shove it in the ground? Well, some people are actually already trying this and have poured millions of dollars, research, and time into this strategy, known as soil sequestration.

The thinking goes that soil can lock carbon underground and help with the climate crisis. But much like how messes don’t disappear when shoved into your closet, soil carbon may not stick around in the ways we had previously thought. In fact, our entire understanding of how carbon dioxide stays in the soil may need some MAJOR reworking.

To be clear: We do know that carbon can stick around in soil for centuries or even millennia. But let’s rewind a sec—if we wanna store carbon in the soil, we first need to understand what that thin layer of material covering Earth is actually made of. At its most basic, soil is made up of minerals, air, water, and organic matter like leaves. Organisms feast on this organic matter, breaking it down and releasing carbon dioxide, or CO2, into the air. With one major exception: humus.

#science #seeker #climatechange #CO2 #conservation #technology #elements #environment

Read More:

A Soil-Science Revolution Upends Plans to Fight Climate Change
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-soil-science-revolution-upends-plans-to-fight-climate-change-20210727/
"A centuries-old concept in soil science has recently been thrown out. Yet it remains a key ingredient in everything from climate models to advanced carbon-capture projects."

One of Earth’s giant carbon sinks may have been overestimated - study
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/24/soils-ability-to-absorb-carbon-emissions-may-be-overestimated-study
"The study, published in the journal Nature, analysed more than 100 experiments from across the world in which soils, plants, and trees were exposed to higher CO2 levels than in today’s atmosphere. The biomass growing in forests rose by 23% in experiments where the CO2 level used was double pre-industrial atmospheric levels. It is 50% higher today. But the forest soils did not store any more organic carbon at all."

Soil degradation: the problems and how to fix them
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/soil-degradation.html
"Soil is not an inert medium but a living ecosystem that is essential to life. It takes hundreds and thousands of years to form an inch of topsoil, and many more centuries before it is fertile. While soil degradation is a natural process, it can also be caused by human activity."

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