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Organic Carbon in Soils of the World
Author(s) -
Eswaran Hari,
Van Den Berg Evert,
Reich Paul
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1993.03615995005700010034x
Subject(s) - soil water , deforestation (computer science) , tropics , environmental science , carbon fibers , atmosphere (unit) , biomass (ecology) , soil carbon , erosion , total organic carbon , soil science , environmental chemistry , agronomy , geology , chemistry , ecology , geography , mathematics , meteorology , biology , paleontology , algorithm , composite number , computer science , programming language
The C stored in soils is nearly three times that in the aboveground biomass and approximately double that in the atmosphere. Reliable estimates have been difficult to obtain due to a lack of global data on kinds of soils and the amount of C in each soil. With new data bases, our study is able to provide more reliable data than previous estimates. Globally, 1576 Pg of C is stored in soils, with ≈ 506 Pg (32%) of this in soils of the tropics. It is also estimated that ≈ 40% of the C in soils of the tropics is in forest soils. Other studies have shown that deforestation can result in 20 to 50% loss of this stored C, largely through erosion.