Projected loss of soil organic carbon in temperate agricultural soils in the 21st century: effects of climate change and carbon input trends

Wiesmeier, Martin; Poeplau, Christopher; Sierra, Carlos; Maier, Harald; Frühauf, Cathleen; Hübner, Rico; Kühnel, Anna; Spörlein, Peter; Geuß, Uwe; Hangen, Edzard; Schilling, Bernd; Lützow, Margit von; Kögel‐Knabner, Ingrid

doi:10.1038/srep32525

Cited by 134 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…Our results agree with other studies that examine changes in soil C stocks as they respond to climate change, despite some potential methodological limitations (Meersmans et al, 2016; Wiesmeier et al, 2016). While our study focused on topsoil C stocks, recent evidence suggests that potential C losses in topsoil may be somewhat offset by gains in deeper soil layers (Muñoz‐Rojas et al, 2017).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Climate Change Impacts on Yields and Soil Carbon in Row Crop Dryland Agriculture

Robertson

Zhang²,

Sherrod

et al. 2018

J of Env Quality

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Dryland agroecosystems could be a sizable sink for atmospheric carbon (C) due to their spatial extent and level of degradation, providing climate change mitigation. We examined productivity and soil C dynamics under two climate change scenarios (moderate warming, representative concentration pathway [RCP] 4.5; and high warming, RCP 8.5), using long-term experimental data and the DayCent process-based model for three sites with varying climates and soil conditions in the US High Plains. Each site included a no-till cropping intensity gradient introduced in 1985, with treatments ranging from wheat-fallow (Triticum aestivum L.) to continuous annual cropping and perennial grass. Simulations were extended to 2100 using data from 16 global circulation models to estimate uncertainty. Simulated yields declined for all crops (up to 50% for wheat), with small changes after 2050 under RCP 4.5 and continued losses to 2100 under RCP 8.5. Of the cropped systems, continuous cropping had the highest average productivity and soil C sequestration rates (78

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Climate Change Impacts on Yields and Soil Carbon in Row Crop Dryland Agriculture

Robertson

Zhang²,

Sherrod

et al. 2018

J of Env Quality

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“…Another soil organic C physical fractionation scheme has been proposed to initialize the rothC model (Zimmermann et al, 2006;Wiesmeier et al, 2016;Nemo et al, 2017) Thermal analysis provides reliable and cost-effective information on the biogeochemical stability of soil C and can be used to estimate the size of soil organic C fractions (Saenger et al, 2015;Barré et al, 2016;Campo and Merino, 2016) Standards for measurement and calculation of proxies of soil contribution to GHGs emissions and C storage…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the YASSO model describes different kinetic pools for litter and SOC, which are determined by chemical extractions in water, ethanol and acid (Tuomi et al, 2011). The size of the soil C pools of the rothC model can also be initialized by a SOC physical fractionation scheme (Zimmermann et al, 2006;Wiesmeier et al, 2016;Nemo et al, 2017). The NoE algorithm (Hénault et al, 2005), which is used to simulate N 2 O emissions in various agroecosystem models, explicitly integrates the soil capacity to reduce N 2 O (Hénault et al, 2001).…”

Section: Needed Standards According To Policy Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for Carbon Stocks in Soils and Measuring GHGs Emission Fluxes from Soils: Do We Have the Necessary Standards?

Bispo

Andersen

Angers

et al. 2017

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Soil is a key compartment for climate regulation as a source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions and as a sink of carbon. Thus, soil carbon sequestration strategies should be considered alongside reduction strategies for other greenhouse gas emissions. Taking this into account, several international and European policies on climate change are now acknowledging the importance of soils, which means that proper, comparable and reliable information is needed to report on carbon stocks and GHGs emissions from soil. It also implies a need for consensus on the adoption and verification of mitigation options that soil can provide. Where consensus is a key aspect, formal standards and guidelines come into play. This paper describes the existing ISO soil quality standards that can be used in this context, and calls for new ones to be developed through (international) collaboration. Available standards cover the relevant basic soil parameters including carbon and nitrogen content but do not yet consider the dynamics of those elements. Such methods have to be developed together with guidelines consistent with the scale to be investigated and the specific use of the collected data. We argue that this standardization strategy will improve the reliability of the reporting procedures and results of the different climate models that rely on soil quality data.

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“…The distribution of residue C in different SOM pools (i.e., labile and recalcitrant C pools) can greatly modify SOC accumulation and stabilization (Majumder and Kuzyakov, 2010; Qiao et al, 2014) due to the contrasting turnover rate of the fast and slow C pools. However, it is also commonly observed that long‐term residue return did not increase SOC stocks (e.g., Fontaine et al, 2004; Wiesmeier et al, 2016), highlighting the importance of other soil factors, such as microbial activity and nitrogen (N) availability, in the preservation of residue‐derived C and SOC dynamics (Zhang et al, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…not increase SOC stocks (e.g., Fontaine et al, 2004;Wiesmeier et al, 2016), highlighting the importance of other soil factors, such as microbial activity and nitrogen (N) availability, in the preservation of residue-derived C and SOC dynamics (Zhang et al, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Microbial Biomass Size and Nitrogen Availability Regulate the Incorporation of Residue Carbon into Dissolved Organic Pool and Microbial Biomass

Zhu‐Barker

et al. 2019

Soil Science Soc of Amer J

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Microbial biomass (MB) plays a critical role in residue decomposition and soil organic matter (SOM) turnover. We investigated the effects of the initial size of soil MB pool and nitrogen (N) availability on the incorporation of ryegrass residue carbon (C) into microbial biomass C (MBC) and dissolved organic C (DOC). Soils from a row crop system (CS) and an adjacent grass sod (GS) were preincubated with (i.e., increased MB) and without (i.e., unchanged MB) glucose to produce soils with two levels of initial MB size before residue additions. Ammonium sulfate was added to test the effect of N availability. Residue addition increased DOC production in both soils, regardless of initial MB size and N availability, contributing 9 to ∼22% to the total pool. Residue quality was observed to affect the incorporation of residue C into DOC, which depended on soil type and initial MB size. However, the assimilation of residue C into MBC was not affected by the quality of ryegrass residue. Compared with the control (which did not have residue and N additions), a significant increase in SOM‐derived MBC by residue addition was observed in CS without glucose preincubation but not in the glucose preincubated CS and in GS. This indicated that the primed MBC by residue addition depended on initial MB size and soil type. The assimilation of residue C into MB was marginally inhibited by the preincubation with glucose in GS but was promoted in CS. With the addition of extra N, higher ryegrass‐derived MBC was observed in CS with glucose preincubation compared with the corresponding treatments without preincubation, which was not found in GS. These results suggested that residue‐derived MBC was not only regulated by initial MB size and N availability but also was affected by soil management history. However, N addition reduced ryegrass‐derived DOC production in GS without glucose preincubation. Apparently, both soil MB size and N availability largely affected the assimilation and incorporation of residue C in soil labile pools (i.e., DOC and MBC), and the extent of this relationship varied between two agricultural soils. Core Ideas Ryegrass residue addition primed the production of SOM‐derived DOC and MBC. Residue quality affected ryegrass‐derived DOC in crop soils. N addition reduced ryegrass‐derived DOC in grass soils. N addition increased ryegrass‐derived MBC in crop soils. Initial MB and N availability regulated the incorporation of residue C into DOC and MBC.

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Projected loss of soil organic carbon in temperate agricultural soils in the 21st century: effects of climate change and carbon input trends

Cited by 134 publications

References 88 publications

Climate Change Impacts on Yields and Soil Carbon in Row Crop Dryland Agriculture

Climate Change Impacts on Yields and Soil Carbon in Row Crop Dryland Agriculture

Accounting for Carbon Stocks in Soils and Measuring GHGs Emission Fluxes from Soils: Do We Have the Necessary Standards?

Soil Microbial Biomass Size and Nitrogen Availability Regulate the Incorporation of Residue Carbon into Dissolved Organic Pool and Microbial Biomass

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