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Climate change: Soil respiration releases carbon
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July 23, 2014
Carnegie Institution
The planet's soil releases about 60 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year, which is
far more than that released by burning fossil fuels. Short­term warming studies have documented
that rising temperatures increase the rate of soil respiration. As a result, scientists have worried
that global warming would accelerate the decomposition of carbon in the soil, releasing more
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and accelerating global warming.
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The planet's soil releases about 60 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year,
which is far more than that released by burning fossil fuels. This happens through a
process called soil respiration. This enormous release of carbon is balanced by carbon
coming into the soil system from falling leaves and other plant matter, as well as by the
underground activities of plant roots.
Short­term warming studies have documented that rising temperatures increase the rate of soil respiration. As a
result, scientists have worried that global warming would accelerate the decomposition of carbon in the soil, and
decrease the amount of carbon stored there. If true, this would release even more carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere, where it would accelerate global warming.
New work by a team of scientists including Carnegie's Greg Asner and Christian Giardina of the U.S. Forest
Service used an expansive whole­ecosystem study, the first of its kind, on tropical montane wet forests in Hawaii
to sort through the many processes that control soil carbon stocks with changing temperature. Their work is
published in Nature Climate Change.
The team revealed that higher temperatures increased the amount of leaf litter falling onto the soil, as well as
other underground sources of carbon such as roots. Surprisingly, long­term warming had little effect on the
overall storage of carbon in the tropical forest soil or the rate at which that carbon is processed into carbon
dioxide.
"If these findings hold true in other tropical regions, then warmer temperatures may not necessarily cause
tropical soils to release their carbon to the atmosphere at a faster rate," remarked Asner. "On the other hand,
we cannot expect that the soil will soak up more carbon in places where vegetation is stimulated by warmer
temperatures. Unlike tropical trees, the soil seems to be on the sidelines in the climate adaptation game."
This means the observed increase in the rate of soil respiration accompanying rising temperatures is due to
carbon dioxide released by the an uptick in the amount of litter falling on the forest floor and an increase in
carbon from underground sources. It is not from a decrease in the overall amount of carbon stored in the soil.
Giardina noted "While we found that carbon stored in the mineral soil was insensitive to long­term warming, the
loss of unprotected carbon responded strongly to temperature. This tells us that the sensitivity of each source of
soil respiration needs to be quantified, and the aggregate response examined, before an understanding of
ecosystem carbon balance in a warmer world can be achieved."
Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Carnegie Institution. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.
Journal Reference:
1. Christian P. Giardina, Creighton M. Litton, Susan E. Crow, Gregory P. Asner. Warming­related increases in
soil CO2 efflux are explained by increased below­ground carbon flux. Nature Climate Change, 2014;
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2322
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Carnegie Institution. "Climate change: Soil respiration releases carbon." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 July
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