The Ecology of Soil Carbon: Pools, Vulnerabilities, and Biotic and Abiotic Controls

Soil organic matter (SOM) anchors global terrestrial productivity and food and fiber supply. SOM retains water and soil nutrients and stores more global carbon than do plants and the atmosphere combined. SOM is also decomposed by microbes, returning CO 2 , a greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, soil carbon stocks have been widely lost or degraded through land use changes and unsustainable forest and agricultural practices. To understand its structure and function and to maintain and restore SOM, we need a better appreciation of soil organic carbon (SOC) saturation capacity and the retention of above- and belowground inputs in SOM. Our analysis suggests root inputs are approximately five times more…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: DEB-1257032, 1257032
• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture

  Award: HAW01130-H
• GA
  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
• MI
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• MS
  Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• V
  Vetenskapsrådet

  Award: E0641701
• II
  Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research
• NI
  National Institute of Food and Agriculture

  Awards: 2012-68002-19795, HAW01130-H