Abstract
Soil organic matter (SOM) supports the Earth's ability to sustain terrestrial ecosystems, provide food and fiber, and retains the largest pool of actively cycling carbon. Over 75% of the soil organic carbon (SOC) in the top meter of soil is directly affected by human land use. Large land areas have lost SOC as a result of land use practices, yet there are compensatory opportunities to enhance productivity and SOC storage in degraded lands through improved management practices. Large areas with and without intentional management are also being subjected to rapid changes in climate, making many SOC stocks vulnerable to losses by decomposition or disturbance. In order to quantify potential SOC losses or sequestration at field, regional, and global scales, measurements for detecting changes in SOC are needed. Such measurements and soil-management best practices should be based on well established and emerging scientific understanding of processes of C stabilization and destabilization over various timescales, soil types, and spatial scales. As newly engaged members of the International Soil Carbon Network, we have identified gaps in data, modeling, and communication that underscore the need for an open, shared network to frame and guide the study of SOM and SOC and their management for sustained production and climate regulation.
Highlights
Soil organic matter (SOM) governs many physical and chemical characteristics of soils, and is one determinant of a soil's capacity for fertility, ecosystem productivity, and CO2 sequestration. SOM, and its main constituent soil organic carbon (SOC), interacts with several aspects of the Earth system and its services to society (Banwart et al, 2014), including food, fiber, water, energy, cycling of C and nutrients, and biodiversity
We propose a way forward to improve soil C data curation with a focus on process variables, which can be applied into a community model framework and actionable science that harnesses mechanistic understanding to address questions on soil health management
We identified the following goals: (1) identify key datasets needed to improve our detection of broad-scale soil C trends and understanding of SOM
Summary
Soil organic matter (SOM) governs many physical and chemical characteristics of soils, and is one determinant of a soil's capacity for fertility, ecosystem productivity, and CO2 sequestration. Most global model frameworks rely on state-factor theory (Campbell and Paustian, 2015), where soil properties are the product of a suite of factors such as climate, biota, topography, parent material, and stage or age of pedogenesis (Jenny,1941), superimposed with major land uses such as deforestation or agriculture (Amundson and Jenny, 1991). Under this framework, global-scale spatial heterogeneity of SOC is a direct reflection of variation within these factors and, will vary with climate and land use change.
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