Reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by water
<p>The acceleration of erosion, transport, and burial of soil organic carbon (OC) by water in response to agricultural expansion represents a significant perturbation of the terrestrial C cycle. Recent model advances now enable improved representation of the relationships between sedimentary p...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Biogeosciences |
| Online Access: | https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/635/2023/bg-20-635-2023.pdf |
| _version_ | 1828014468797300736 |
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| author | K. Van Oost J. Six |
| author_facet | K. Van Oost J. Six |
| author_sort | K. Van Oost |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>The acceleration of erosion, transport, and burial of soil organic carbon
(OC) by water in response to agricultural expansion represents a significant
perturbation of the terrestrial C cycle. Recent model advances now enable
improved representation of the relationships between sedimentary processes
and OC cycling, and this has led to substantially revised assessments of
changes in land OC as a result of land cover and climate change. However,
surprisingly a consensus on both the direction and magnitude of the
erosion-induced land–atmosphere OC exchange is still lacking. Here, we show
that the apparent soil OC erosion paradox, i.e., whether agricultural
erosion results in an OC sink or source, can be reconciled when
comprehensively considering the range of temporal and spatial scales at
which erosional effects on the C cycle operate. We developed a framework
that describes erosion-induced OC sink and source terms across scales. We
conclude that erosion induces a source for atmospheric CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> when
considering only small temporal and spatial scales, while both sinks and
sources appear when multi-scaled approaches are used. We emphasize the need
for erosion control for the benefits it brings for the delivery of ecosystem services, but cross-scale approaches are essential to accurately represent erosion effects on the global C cycle.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T10:02:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d3d4cbe570e34df8bd172fbcfb4bae55 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1726-4170 1726-4189 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T10:02:45Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biogeosciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-d3d4cbe570e34df8bd172fbcfb4bae552023-02-16T07:01:09ZengCopernicus PublicationsBiogeosciences1726-41701726-41892023-02-012063564610.5194/bg-20-635-2023Reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by waterK. Van Oost0J. Six1Georges Lemaître Center for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, Place Louis Pasteur 3, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, BelgiumDepartment of Environmental Systems Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 2, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland<p>The acceleration of erosion, transport, and burial of soil organic carbon (OC) by water in response to agricultural expansion represents a significant perturbation of the terrestrial C cycle. Recent model advances now enable improved representation of the relationships between sedimentary processes and OC cycling, and this has led to substantially revised assessments of changes in land OC as a result of land cover and climate change. However, surprisingly a consensus on both the direction and magnitude of the erosion-induced land–atmosphere OC exchange is still lacking. Here, we show that the apparent soil OC erosion paradox, i.e., whether agricultural erosion results in an OC sink or source, can be reconciled when comprehensively considering the range of temporal and spatial scales at which erosional effects on the C cycle operate. We developed a framework that describes erosion-induced OC sink and source terms across scales. We conclude that erosion induces a source for atmospheric CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> when considering only small temporal and spatial scales, while both sinks and sources appear when multi-scaled approaches are used. We emphasize the need for erosion control for the benefits it brings for the delivery of ecosystem services, but cross-scale approaches are essential to accurately represent erosion effects on the global C cycle.</p>https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/635/2023/bg-20-635-2023.pdf |
| spellingShingle | K. Van Oost J. Six Reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by water Biogeosciences |
| title | Reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by water |
| title_full | Reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by water |
| title_fullStr | Reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by water |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by water |
| title_short | Reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by water |
| title_sort | reconciling the paradox of soil organic carbon erosion by water |
| url | https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/635/2023/bg-20-635-2023.pdf |
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