Overview

• What is soil C?
• Climate change feedbacks
Mineralisation of soil C
Permafrost melting
Extreme weather
Fire
• Can we manage soil C stocks to mitigate
climate change?
Change in land use
Agricultural management
What is soil carbon?
What is soil organic matter and how is it formed?
Plant litter/ debris, rhizodeposits, mycorrhizal hyphae/exudates, manure,
urine, frass….. dead animals…… compost

Input quality/ quantity?

Saturation levels?

Physico-chemical
properties?

Soil moisture?

Fauna?

Microbial communities?

Soil depth?

Management practices?
Six et al. (2002) Plant and Soil 241, 155-176.
 Unprotected Carbon

• Consists of plant residues in various states of decomposition

• Associated with microbial biomass/ microbial debris
• Labile, half-life <5 years?
 Physically protected soil carbon
SOM located within micro- (53-250 μm) and macro- (>250 μm)
aggregates is protected from decay as a result of:
• OM compartmentalised away from microbes; most microbes
are on outside of aggregate due to pore size exclusion- SOM
is in the centre
• Low oxygen diffusion, especially in microaggegates
• Physical separation of microbial biomass and grazers
Physically protected soil organic carbon
• Turnover time of C in microaggregates = 412 yr
• Turnover time of C in macroaggregates = 140 yr
• Aggregation is associated with accumulation of SOC
• Cultivation breaks up aggregates, increasing C availability
resulting in quicker mineralisation
 Soil organic C protected by clay and silt
• Clay and silt in soil are <53 μm organo-mineral complexes
• Organic matter associated with clay and silt is physically
protected
• Type of clay affects stabilisation due to differences in
cation exchange capacity and surface area
• There is a saturation level for C stabilised by clay/ silt
• Amount of clay and silt associated organic matter declines
with cultivation

https://gsoil.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/lightening-the-clay-ii/ Kaolinite
 Biochemically protected SOC
• High molecular weight and structurally complex:
aromatic humified components and wax derived long
chain aliphatics
• Non-hydrolysable, 1300-1800 yrs older than total soil C;
degradation is slow due to chemistry and association
with clays: unaffected by land use change
• Represents 35-65 % of soil carbon
How will soil C stocks be affected by
climate change?
Feedbacks between the carbon cycle
and climate change

Davidson and Janssens 2006 Nature 440, 165-173

Climate change effects on ecosystem
productivity; negative feedbacks

• >Season length
• >Plant growth rate
• Changes in species
composition
• Ecosystem energy
exchange
Effect of climate change on soil C
mineralisation

Davidson and Janssens 2006 Nature 440, 165-173

Effects of climate change on soil C
mineralization; positive feedbacks

• Meta–analysis across
Boreal, temperate and
tropical biomes over
period 1989-2008
• Soil respiration increased
by 0.1 % per year
• Boreal flux increased by 7
% ; tropical and temperate
by 3 and 2 %

Bond-Lamberty and Thomson

2010 Nature 464, 579-581
 C pools vary in their response to
warming

Temperature coefficient (Q10)- ratio of respiration at 2

temperatures with a 10oC difference
Q10 for young soil C: 2.4-2.9
Q10 for old soil C: 3.6
(Vanhala et al 2007 Soil Biol. Biochem 39, 2967-2970)
Schuur et al 2008
Bioscience 58,
701-714
Zimov et al (2006) Science 312, 1612-1613
 Effect of climate change on soil C
mineralisation
• Range of predicted C release from thawing permafrost:
50-100 Gt C by 2100

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVpQnpWS2wU
Winter CO2 emissions from permafrost

Natali et al 2019
Nature Climate Change
9, 852-857

Winter loss:
1662 Tg C year
Growing season C uptake:
1032 Tg C year
Winter CO2 emissions from thawing
permafrost

RCP 4.5 =
climate
mitigation, RCP
8.5 does not

Natali et al 2019 Nature Climate Change 9, 852-857

 Thawing permafrost

Alaska
Chersky, Russia
 Infrastructure risk 2041-2060

Hjort et al
2018
Nature
Comms 9,
5147

70 % current infrastructure, 4 million people at high risk

 Methane
• Wetland emissions may
rise by 10 -35 % per
degree of warming

O’ Connor et al 2010 Reviews of Geophysics 48, RG4005

 Arctic CH4 emissions

https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/
 Methane hydrate
• Frozen methane
• Found in deep permafrost and
marine sediments at >500m
• Stability relies on temperature
and pressure
• Natural cycling may be related
to climate warming/cooling
• Release of frozen methane
would have positive feedback
on climate change
• Timescale: 100-10,000 years?

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47505
 Extreme weather: positive feedbacks on soil
Carbon?

Reichstein et al 2013
Nature 500, 287- 295
 Loss of soil C through fires
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sQNYF2aObU

Feedbacks on climate change from fire?

Positive
• CO2 loss to the atmosphere

• Removal of insulating soil organic matter layer

Negative
• Alteration of albedo (reflectance of earth’s surface)
Loss of soil C through fires: positive
feedback
2007 Anaktuvuk river fire

• Burned 1039 Km2

• Loss of 2 Kg C m2

• 2.1Tg C lost

• 60 % C lost from soil C

• No evidence of fires in region

in past 5k years

Mack et al 2011 Nature 475, 489-491

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/26/unprecedented-more-than-100-
wildfires-burning-in-the-arctic-in-worst-ever-season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L64YWQbWtw
 Can we mitigate climate change by
increasing storage of C in soil
• Conversion to agriculture depletes SOC by up to 60 % in
temperate zones, and 75 % in the tropics
• Total historical C lost estimated at 40-90 Gt
• Potential to sequester C in soil to reverse C loss using
management
• SOC sequestration relies on addition of biomass, and
minimal soil disturbance to conserve water, improve
structure and enhance biological activity
• Agricultural soil could mitigate 3-6 % of fossil fuel
emissions
Can change in land use be used as a tool
to increase C storage?
 Management and SOC
• Change in land use affects SOC
• Cropping results in SOC decline

Guo and Gifford (2002) Global Change Biology 8, 345-360.

Can management practices be used to
increase C storage?
Recommended
management
practices
(Lal 2004)
Management methods to
sequester SOC
Change in agricultural
soil management could
mitigate 3-6 % of fossil
fuel emissions

Lal (2004) Science 304 (5677), 1623-1627.

Biochar and C sequestration

Lehman (2007) Nature 447, 143-144