Consolidating soil carbon turnover models by improved estimates of belowground carbon input.

ABSTRACT: World soil carbon (C) stocks are third only to those in the ocean and earth crust, and represent twice the amount currently present in the atmosphere. Therefore, any small change in the amount of soil organic C (SOC) may affect carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere. Dynamic models of SOC help reveal the interaction among soil carbon systems, climate and land management, and they are also frequently used to help assess SOC dynamics. Those models often use allometric functions to calculate soil C inputs in which the amount of C in both above and below ground crop residues are assumed to be proportional to crop harvest yield. Here we argue that simulating changes in SOC stocks based on C input that are proportional to crop yield is not supported by data from long-term experime

SUBMITTER: Taghizadeh-Toosi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5007648 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature