What is the importance of soil carbon storage and why should we increase carbon content and build soil organic matter?
@ RK, soil carbon storage provides a source of nutrients through mineralization, helps to aggregate soil particles to build structure and provide resilience to physical degradation, increases microbial activity, increases water storage and availability to plants, and protects soil from erosion, improved soil health, restore degraded soils, and ultimately agricultural productivity. Carbon capture and storage is a way of reducing carbon emissions, which could be key to helping to tackle global warming.
I agree with J C Tarafdar that soil carbon sequestration helps restore degraded soils, which can improve agricultural productivity. Increased climate resilience: healthier soils make farms more resilient against both droughts and heavy rainfall. Soil carbon provides a source of nutrients through mineralization, helps to aggregate soil particles (structure) to provide resilience to physical degradation, increases microbial activity, increases water storage and availability to plants, and protects soil from erosion. Carbon is sequestered in soil by plants through photosynthesis and can be stored as soil organic carbon (SOC). Agro ecosystems can degrade and deplete the SOC levels but this carbon deficit opens up the opportunity to store carbon through new land management practices. Soil can also store carbon as carbonates. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a way of reducing carbon emissions, which could be key to helping to tackle global warming. Higher levels of soil organic carbon reduce bulk density, thus providing an improved rooting environment. In addition, soil organic matter holds soil water, which is an important attribute for plant growth in arid and mesic environments. Higher soil organic carbon promotes soil structure or tilth meaning there is greater physical stability. This improves soil aeration and water drainage and retention, and reduces the risk of erosion and nutrient leaching. Organic matter plays a significant role in crop production and soil health by improving physical, chemical, and biological functions in the soil. Increasing levels of organic matter aid in soil structure, water-holding capacity, nutrient mineralization, biological activity, and water and air infiltration rates. Organic matter is primarily made up of carbon (58%), with the remaining mass consisting of water and other nutrients such as nitrogen and potassium. Carbon is the largest and easiest component of organic matter to measure and as a result SOC is typically measured and reported in a standard soil test. Generally, soil organic carbon can be increased by increasing organic carbon inputs and/or reducing losses. Increase SOC inputs and increase crop yield and optimize rotations to increase carbon inputs per unit land area. Soil organic carbon not only improves soil nutrient bioavailability but also affects soil fertility by various other mechanisms and is of central importance for the global C-cycle, which may strongly affect atmospheric CO2-concentrations
There are huge number of research articles on this issue. Googling may help you to get those references..
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematical Sciences
- Statistics
- Probability
- Probability Theory
- Reliability