Premium
Soil aggregates as biogeochemical reactors: Not a way forward in the research on soil–atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases
Author(s) -
Kravchenko Alexandra,
Otten Wilfred,
Garnier Patricia,
Pot Valérie,
Baveye Philippe C.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1111/gcb.14640
Subject(s) - biogeochemical cycle , environmental science , atmosphere (unit) , greenhouse gas , earth science , atmospheric sciences , soil science , environmental chemistry , chemistry , geology , meteorology , geography , oceanography
The goal of this comment is to show that the “aggregate reactor” framework recently proposed in an article published in this journal is severely limited by two kinds of indeterminacy. The first is related to the size of aggregates, which is not defined precisely. The second issue is with the impossibility to replicate boundary conditions that are identical to what chunks of soils would have experienced in their natural state. We suggest that the study of GHG release in undisturbed soil samples is a better way to proceed forward.