Impact of Agricultural Soil Erosion on the Global Carbon Cycle

Agricultural soil erosion is thought to perturb the global carbon cycle, but estimates of its effect range from a source of 1 petagram per year⁻¹ to a sink of the same magnitude. By using caesium-137 and carbon inventory measurements from a large-scale survey, we found consistent evidence for an ero...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2007-10, Vol.318 (5850), p.626-629
Main Authors: Van Oost, K, Quine, T.A, Govers, G, De Gryze, S, Six, J, Harden, J.W, Ritchie, J.C, McCarty, G.W, Heckrath, G, Kosmas, C, Giraldez, J.V, da Silva, J.R. Marques, Merckx, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural soils
Agriculture
Agrology
Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Atmospheric chemistry
Biological and medical sciences
Carbon
Carbon sinks
Eroded soils
Erosion
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Techniques
Generalities
Human influences
Sedimentary soils
Soil erosion
Soil erosion, conservation, land management and development
Soil science
Water erosion
Watersheds
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Summary:Agricultural soil erosion is thought to perturb the global carbon cycle, but estimates of its effect range from a source of 1 petagram per year⁻¹ to a sink of the same magnitude. By using caesium-137 and carbon inventory measurements from a large-scale survey, we found consistent evidence for an erosion-induced sink of atmospheric carbon equivalent to approximately 26% of the carbon transported by erosion. Based on this relationship, we estimated a global carbon sink of 0.12 (range 0.06 to 0.27) petagrams of carbon per year⁻¹ resulting from erosion in the world's agricultural landscapes. Our analysis directly challenges the view that agricultural erosion represents an important source or sink for atmospheric CO₂.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1145724