• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Monday, June 27, 2022
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Ecologists publish research on soil’s potential to increase the Earth’s CO2

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
December 7, 2016
in Science News
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: Kansas State University

MANHATTAN, KANSAS — Soil, an important part of the carbon cycle, might compound the world's carbon dioxide problem, according to a global study involving Kansas State University researchers and Konza Prairie Biological Station.

The study, "Quantifying global soil carbon losses in response to warming," recently published in Nature, predicts that soils may release large quantities of carbon dioxide in response to warming, leading to even faster rates of warming globally. The authors, who include Kansas State University's John Blair, university distinguished professor of biology and director of the NSF-funded Long-Term Ecological Research program at Konza Prairie, used data from 49 sites in different ecosystems around the world.

According to the collaborative study, led by Tom Crowther at Yale University, Arctic soils containing large amounts of soil carbon are the most sensitive to warming and will release the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The study also found the carbon stored in temperate grassland soils, such as Konza Prairie, is much less sensitive to comparable warming.

"Globally, soils hold more than twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, so even a relatively small increase in release of carbon from the Earth's soils can have a large impact on atmospheric greenhouse gases and future warming," Blair said. "Tallgrass prairie holds more soil carbon than other grasslands in the Central Plains of North America, but the greatest amounts of soil carbon globally are stored in colder high-latitude ecosystems, such as boreal forests and tundra, where it has accumulated over thousands of years."

According to the study, soils in the Arctic ecosystems are the most susceptible to releasing stored carbon when warmed, which could drive further global change and upset the delicate balance in the carbon cycle, resulting in carbon feedback instead of sequestration. The study was the first to compile data on responses of soils to warming from field experiments in a variety of ecosystems for a global view of soil carbon's sensitivity to warming.

"The real power in the study is using a network of sites including grasslands to address the relative sensitivities of these different ecosystems," Blair said. "Scientists working independently can say something about how responsive or how sensitive their specific ecosystems are but it really takes an analysis of data from multiple sites and multiple ecosystems to draw robust conclusions about how warming will affect global carbon cycling."

The warming study at Konza Prairie — an 8,600-acre native tallgrass prairie research station jointly owned by Kansas State University and The Nature Conservancy and managed by the university's Division of Biology — is part of a larger ongoing project that has been assessing the effect of climate change since 1998. Konza Prairie researchers used infrared heaters to raise the ground temperature by approximately one degree Celsius, which, Blair said, is well within the current prediction for climate change in the next several decades. The Konza study also monitors changes in plant communities, plant productivity, and soil carbon and nitrogen, and has resulted in a number of papers on tallgrass prairie responses to climate change.

For the Nature paper, researchers measured the carbon stored in soil core samples before and after warming. While there was little change in soil carbon at Konza Prairie and other grassland sites in response to warming, the soils in colder high-latitude ecosystems lost large amounts of carbon. Globally, the predicted release of carbon dioxide from all soils could exceed 55 trillion kilograms of carbon by 2050, or about 17 percent more than projected emissions because of human-related activities.

"This study and others like it highlight the importance of the soil carbon pool globally," Blair said. "What we know from this study is that warming will result in the loss of stored carbon in a wide variety of ecosystems — and that has potentially harmful effects in terms of future global warming. At the same time, it also highlights the potential role that the soil could play in storing carbon and helping to mitigate climate change."

Although it wasn't addressed by the Nature study, Blair said that developing land management practices that promote the storage of soil carbon is one way of combating some of the increases in carbon dioxide in future climate change.

"Mitigating carbon dioxide release will be important for preventing these kinds of feedbacks and a rapid increase in global warming," Blair said. "This study sounds an alarm that we need to be aware of these kinds of feedbacks in order to control greenhouse gasses while they are still controllable."

###

Media Contact

John Blair
[email protected]
785-532-7064
@KStateNews​

http://www.k-state.edu

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

Bone density scan.

Predicting the future: A quick, easy scan can reveal late-life dementia risk

June 27, 2022
“Whisker” of crystal growing out from a crystalline front.

Scientists unravel mysterious mechanism behind “whisker crystal” growth

June 25, 2022

New study offers insight into past—and future—of west-side wildfires

June 25, 2022

Built infrastructure, hunting and climate change linked to huge migratory bird declines

June 25, 2022
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Pacific whiting

    Oregon State University research finds evidence to suggest Pacific whiting skin has anti-aging properties that prevent wrinkles

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9
  • University of Miami Rosenstiel School selected for National ‘Reefense’ Initiative focusing on Florida and the Caribbean

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Saving the Mekong delta from drowning

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9
  • Sharks may be closer to the city than you think, new study finds

    34 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

WeaponryVaccinesVaccineUniversity of WashingtonWeather/StormsViolence/CriminalsVehiclesVirusUrbanizationUrogenital SystemZoology/Veterinary ScienceVirology

Recent Posts

  • Predicting the future: A quick, easy scan can reveal late-life dementia risk
  • Scientists unravel mysterious mechanism behind “whisker crystal” growth
  • New study offers insight into past—and future—of west-side wildfires
  • Built infrastructure, hunting and climate change linked to huge migratory bird declines
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Posting....