Soil has generally been regarded as the largest carbon pool in the terrestrial ecosystem, being approximately 2300 Gt C as estimated in previous literature. However, lithosphere contains more C as inorganic materials such as carbonate rocks, maybe ~ 20000 Gt C in rocks. Do we need to clarify that soil is the largest organic carbon pool (instead of carbon pool) in the terrestrial ecosystem, since carbon consists of organic and inorganic C containing materials and the size of soil total C storage is far less than that of rock C?
Forests, pastures, wetlands, and croplands are the major terrestrial carbon pools. Forest is the most significant part of the aboveground terrestrial pool, Soil organic carbon represents the largest terrestrial carbon pool, amounting to about two to three times the net size of the biomass pools. The largest reservoir of the Earth's carbon is located in the deep-ocean. Soils are made in part of broken-down plant matter. This means they contain a lot of carbon that those plants took in from the atmosphere while they were alive. Especially in colder climates where decomposition is slow, soils can store—or “sequester”—this carbon for a very long time. A terrestrial ecosystem is a land-based community of organisms and the interactions of biotic and abiotic components in a given area. Soil organic carbon represents the largest terrestrial carbon pool, amounting to about two to three times the net size of the biomass pools. Wetlands store the greatest amount of carbon per unit area, although this varies widely Although oceans store most of the Earth's carbon, soils contain approximately 75% of the carbon pool on land.
Thanks for your reply@Prem Baboo! Yes it is clear that soil contains a great amount of C as SOC and the pool size is much greater than that of vegetation and atmosphere. My question is that rocks of the world store much higher amount of C (as inorganic C) than soil. Is it correct to say that soil is the greatest terrestrial C pool?
- Badges
- Science topic