Soil Carbon Saturation: What Do We Really Know?

Managing soils to increase organic carbon storage presents a potential opportunity to mitigate and adapt to global change challenges, while providing numerous co-benefits and ecosystem services. However, soils differ widely in their potential for carbon sequestration, and knowledge of biophysical limits to carbon accumulation may aid in informing priority regions. Consequently, there is great interest in assessing whether soils exhibit a maximum capacity for storing organic carbon, particularly within organo-mineral associations given the finite nature of reactive minerals in a soil. While the concept of soil carbon saturation has existed for over 25 years, recent studies have argued for and against its…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 2409246
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Award: SCW1632
• AF
  Arcadia Fund
• BH
  Bayerisch-Kalifornischen Hochschulzentrum

  Award: 8[2021‐2]
• NI
  National Institute of Food and Agriculture

  Award: 2020‐67019‐3139
• DO
  Division of Environmental Biology

  Award: 2409246
• LL
  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  Awards: 24‐SI‐002, 22‐ERD‐021