Carbon storage in soil

Mineral Availability as a Key regulator of Soil Carbon Storage, Yu, G., J. Xiao, S. Hu, M.L. Polizzotto, F. Zhao, S.P. Mcgrath, H. Li, W. Ran, and Q. Shen, Environ. Sci. Technol., Publication Date (Web): April 12, 2017 (Article), DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b00305.

Section 17.3 in our text discusses the types of ‘services’ soil offer in the natural environment. A current topic of interest is sequestration of carbon dioxide by forest soils that we mention. This paper provides further details as to how mineral binding is a major part of the mechanism for soil carbon (C) stabilization. The authors attempt to improve our understanding of these mechanisms regulating mineral availability.

Soil formation

Influence of 150 years of land use on anthropogenic and natural carbon stocks in Emilia-Romagna region (Italy), Scalenghe R., F. Malucelli, F. Ungaro, L. Perazzone, N. Filippi, and A. C. Edwards, Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45, 5112–5117 (Published by ACS, May 2011)

Chapter 17 introduces soil organic matter and the importance of carbon in soil formation processes. This paper tackles a difficult issue of understanding how natural carbon stocks have been influenced by our activities over a century and a half and is a nice case study.