Soil carbon research and global environmental challenges

, , , , , ,
1 Department of Soil Science, FD Hole Soils Lab, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States
2 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
3 Institute for Soil Research, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
4 Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Nairobi, Kenya
5 Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
6 Department of Environmental Systems Science, Elgenossishe Technische Hochschule Zurich (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland
7 Department of Soil Science, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.366v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Agricultural Science, Ecology, Environmental Sciences, Soil Science, Science Policy
Keywords
soil carbon, environment, research priorities
Copyright
© 2014 Hartemink et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Hartemink AE, Lal R, Gerzabek MH, Jama B, McBratney A, Six J, Tornquist CG. 2014. Soil carbon research and global environmental challenges. PeerJ PrePrints 2:e366v1

Abstract

The role of soil organic carbon (SOC) in maintaining soil conditions and its resulting services is well established. Currently, over 1,000 articles per year are being published in peer-reviewed journals, and increasing at about 10% per year. It was not until the 1980s when the relation between soils and climate change was noted, and it was realized that soils play a key role as a sink and source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) ( Bouwman 1990, Scharpenseel, Ayoub and Schomaker 1990, Jenny 1980). A large number of research projects have been initiated globally in which soil C is a key component, and there have been some excellent reviews ( Lal 2004, Stockmann et al. 2013, Melillo et al. 2011). Yet, there is a lack of focus in soil C research in relation to current environmental challenges. Here we recommend research priorities to advance the knowledge base and use of soil C in relation to global human and environmental challenges: food and fiber production, water scarcity and purification, energy production, climate change, biodiversity, recycling waste, and environmental degradation. We have listed the priorities under three themes: (i) Soil C in space and time, (ii) Soil C properties and processes, and (ii) Soil C depletion and management.