GC12B-07
The Contribution of Soils to North America’s Current and Future Climate
Monday, 14 December 2015: 11:10
3014 (Moscone West)
Melanie A Mayes1, Sasha Reed2, Peter E Thornton1, Kate Lajtha3, Vanessa L Bailey4, Gyami Shrestha5, Julie D Jastrow6 and Margaret S Torn7, (1)Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, United States, (2)Southwest Biological Science Center Moab, Moab, UT, United States, (3)Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States, (4)Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States, (5)US Carbon Cycle Science Program, US Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, United States, (6)Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, United States, (7)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States
Abstract:
This presentation will cover key aspects of the terrestrial soil carbon cycle in North America and the US for the upcoming State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCRII). SOCCRII seeks to summarize how natural processes and human interactions affect the global carbon cycle, how socio-economic trends affect greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, and how ecosystems are influenced by and respond to greenhouse gas emissions, management decisions, and concomitant climate effects. Here, we will summarize the contemporary understanding of carbon stocks, fluxes, and drivers in the soil ecosystem compartment. We will highlight recent advances in modeling the magnitude of soil carbon stocks and fluxes, as well as the importance of remaining uncertainties in predicting soil carbon cycling and its relationship with climate. Attention will be given to the role of uncertainties in predicting future fluxes from soils, and how those uncertainties vary by region and ecosystem. We will also address how climate feedbacks and management decisions can enhance or minimize future climatic effects based on current understanding and observations, and will highlight select research needs to improve our understanding of the balance of carbon in soils in North America.
