Researchers find stable forest soil carbon breaks down and releases CO2
Updated
Updated · SciTechDaily · May 1
Researchers find stable forest soil carbon breaks down and releases CO2
10 articles · Updated · SciTechDaily · May 1
In Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, a 37-year experiment warming soil by 5C found persistent carbon stores decomposing after decades, with Jerry Melillo and colleagues reporting the results.
The study suggests warming-altered microbial communities can accelerate soil carbon loss, creating a feedback loop in which higher temperatures trigger extra CO2 emissions that could intensify climate change.
Because soils store more carbon globally than the atmosphere and plants combined, the findings challenge assumptions that some soil carbon remains locked away for centuries and may refine climate models.
As warming awakens a hidden carbon bomb in soil, can new technologies defuse it before we cross a climate tipping point?
Our climate models have missed a massive carbon source. How much faster is the world warming than our best predictions now suggest?
Vulnerable Soil Carbon Pools Release Massive CO2, Reducing 1.5°C Carbon Budget by Up to 25%
Overview
Recent research confirms that rising global temperatures are causing deep soil carbon, once thought stable, to break down and release significant amounts of CO2. This process is intensified by extreme weather like droughts, which cause soil cracking and expose protected carbon to microbes, accelerating decomposition. Warming also reshapes microbial communities, boosting their activity and further increasing carbon loss. These combined effects weaken the land's ability to absorb carbon, creating a feedback loop where soil carbon release adds to atmospheric CO2, driving more warming. This cycle threatens to reduce the remaining carbon budget for limiting global temperature rise, highlighting the urgent need for targeted climate action.