Researchers warn this carbon might become a contributor to climate change

May 26, 2014 20:13 GMT  ·  By
Researchers warn carbon in deep, ancient soils might become a contributor to climate change and global warming
   Researchers warn carbon in deep, ancient soils might become a contributor to climate change and global warming

In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience this May 26, a team of researchers say that, according to evidence at hand, chances are that there is quite a lot of carbon trapped in deep, ancient soils.

Besides, the team of specialists warns that, all things considered, it is possible that this carbon will one day become a contributor to ongoing phenomena such as climate change and global warming.

In order for this to happen, all it takes is for the soils in which it is buried to have their stability affected by erosion, agricultural practices, deforestation, mining, and other similar events, the scientists go on to detail.

The carbon that researchers are worried might one day contribute to climate change and global warming is dubbed organic carbon, i.e. carbon bound in an organic compound, Phys Org informs.

Specialist Erika Marin-Spiotta and colleagues have documented its presence in soil estimated to have formed about 15,000-13,500 years ago, and they say it now sits at a depth of about 6.5 meters (roughly 21 feet) in present-day Nebraska, Kansas, and several regions of the Great Plains.

This soil now sits under an accumulation of loess, i.e. yellowish-grey accumulation of wind-blown sediment, and evidence indicates that it contains quite a lot of organic carbon that might be released should the soil that contains it be disturbed.

Interestingly enough, it appears that most of this carbon is the result of wildfires that hit this region thousands of years ago, when glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere started to retreat and the area underwent a drastic shift in climate patterns.

“Most of the carbon (in the Brady soil) was fire derived or black carbon. It looks like there was an incredible amount of fire,” specialist Erika Marin-Spiotta with the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States says in a statement.

The scientists behind this investigation into the carbon content of ancient soils in present-day Nebraska and the Great Plains believe that carbon is stored in the underground in several other regions of the world as well, and warn that, if released, this carbon might push climate change and global warming into overdrive.

“There is a lot of carbon at depths where nobody is measuring. It was assumed that there was little carbon in deeper soils. Most studies are done in only the top 30 centimeters. Our study is showing that we are potentially grossly underestimating carbon in soils,” Erika Marin-Spiotta wishes to stress.