Soil Carbon

Few topics cut across the soil science discipline wider than research on soil carbon. This book contains 48 chapters that focus on novel and exciting aspects of soil carbon research from all over the world. It includes review papers by global leaders in soil carbon research, and the book ends with a list and discussion of global soil carbon research priorities. Chapters are loosely grouped in four sections: § Soil carbon in space and time § Soil carbon properties and processes § Soil use and carbon management § Soil carbon and the environment A wide variety of topics is included: soil carbon modelling, measurement, monitoring, microbial dynamics, soil carbon management and 12 chapters focus on national or regional soil carbon stock assessments. The book provides up-to-date information for researchers interested in soil carbon in relation to climate change and to researchers that are interested in soil carbon for the maintenance of soil quality and fertility. Papers in this book were presented at the IUSS Global Soil C Conference that was held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

The Future of Soil Carbon: Its Conservation and Formation provides readers with an integrative approach to understanding the important role of organic carbon in soil functioning and fertility. Terrestrial interactions between SOC and complex human-natural systems require new fundamental and applied research into regional and global SOC budgets. This book provides new and synthesized information on the dynamics of SOC in the terrestrial environment. In addition to rigorous state-of-the art on soil science, the book also provides strategies to avoid risks of soil carbon losses. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a vital component of soils, with important and far-reaching effects on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Human activities over the last several decades have significantly changed the regional and global balance of SOC, greatly exacerbating global warming and climate change. Provides a holistic overview of soil carbon status and main threats for its conservation Offers innovative solutions to conserve soil carbon Includes in-depth treatment of regional and global changes in soil organic carbon budget

Soil Carbon Storage: Modulators, Mechanisms and Modeling takes a novel approach to the issue of soil carbon storage by considering soil C sequestration as a function of the interaction between biotic (e.g. microbes and plants) and abiotic (climate, soil types, management practices) modulators as a key driver of soil C. These modulators are central to C balance through their processing of C from both plant inputs and native soil organic matter. This book considers this concept in the light of state-of-the-art methodologies that elucidate these interactions and increase our understanding of a vitally important, but poorly characterized component of the global C cycle. The book provides soil scientists with a comprehensive, mechanistic, quantitative and predictive understanding of soil carbon storage. It presents a new framework that can be included in predictive models and management practices for better prediction and enhanced C storage in soils. Identifies management practices to enhance storage of soil C under different agro-ecosystems, soil types and climatic conditions Provides novel conceptual frameworks of biotic (especially microbial) and abiotic data to improve prediction of simulation model at plot to global scale Advances the conceptual framework needed to support robust predictive models and sustainable land management practices

This book brings together the essential evidence and policy opportunities regarding the global importance of soil carbon for sustaining Earth's life support system for humanity. Covering the science and policy background for this important natural resource, it describes land management options that improve soil carbon status and therefore increase the benefits that humans derive from the environment. Written by renowned global experts, it is the principal output from a SCOPE rapid assessment process project.

Based on in-depth contributions from leading scientists, this book provides an integrated view of the current and emerging methods and concepts applied in soil carbon research. It contains a standardised protocol for measuring soil CO2 efflux, designed to improve future assessments of regional and global patterns of soil carbon dynamics.

Better Manage Soil C for Improved Soil Quality In the United States, soil has fueled the availability of abundant, safe food, thus underpinning economic growth and development. In the future we need to be more vigilant in managing and renewing this precious resource by replacing the nutrients and life-sustaining matter that we remove for

Carbon stabilization involves to capturing carbon from the atmosphere and fix it in the forms soil organic carbon stock for a long period of time, it will be present to escape as a greenhouse gas in the form of carbon dioxide. Soil carbon storage is an important ecosystem service, resulting from interactions of several ecological processes. This process is primarily mediated by plants through photosynthesis, with carbon stored in the form of soil organic carbon. Soil carbon levels have reduced over decades of conversion of pristine ecosystems into agriculture landscape, which now offers the opportunity to store carbon from air into the soil. Carbon stabilization into the agricultural soils is a novel approach of research and offers promising reduction in the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This book brings together all aspects of soil carbon sequestration and stabilization, with a special focus on diversity of microorganisms and management practices of soil in agricultural systems. It discusses the role of ecosystem functioning, recent and future prospects, soil microbial ecological studies, rhizosphere microflora, and organic matter in soil carbon stabilization. It also explores carbon transformation in soil, biological management and its genetics, microbial transformation of soil carbon, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs), and their role in sustainable agriculture. The book offers a spectrum of ideas of new technological inventions and fundamentals of soil sustainability. It will be suitable for teachers, researchers, and policymakers, undergraduate and graduate students of soil science, soil microbiology, agronomy, ecology, and environmental sciences

Soil carbon sequestration can play a strategic role in controlling the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere and thereby help mitigate climatic change. There are scientific opportunities to increase the capacity of soils to store carbon and remove it from circulation for longer periods of time. The vast areas of degraded and desertified lands throughout the world offer great potential for the sequestration of very large quantities of carbon. If credits are to be bought and sold for carbon storage, quick and inexpensive instruments and methods will be needed to monitor and verify that carbon is actually being added and maintained in soils. Large-scale soil carbon sequestration projects pose economic and social problems that need to be explored. This book focuses on scientific and implementation issues that need to be addressed in order to advance the discipline of carbon sequestration from theory to reality. The main issues discussed in the book are broad and cover aspects of basic science, monitoring, and implementation. The opportunity to restore productivity of degraded lands through carbon sequestration is examined in detail. This book will be of special interest to professionals in agronomy, soil science, and climatology.