Geologic and pedologic perspectives of the global c cycle
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Terrestrial carbon cycling, including both carbon storage and carbon flux, is studied on time scales of minutes to millennia. Dynamics of the carbon budget raise questions of control and feedback on scales ranging from excavation sites to broad landscapes, often along gradients in climate, nutrient supply, or other driving factors. Processes that must be quantified are also diverse, including for example gas transport through soil, nutrient occlusion and release, carbon stabilization in soil, soil erosion, and sediment transport. Because of the diversity in temporal and spatial scales, and processes, insights into terrestrial carbon cycle research require interdisciplinary approaches. For example, the terrestrial carbon budget over a glacial cycle is best modeled with landscape models of deglaciation and sedimentation combined with carbon accumulation rates of different ecosystems. Glacial geology, quantitative pedology, and ecosystem analysis are the traditional disciplines needed for this perspective. Another example involves models of carbon accumulation in boreal forests over annual to decadal time scales; fire ecology, trace gas chemistry, pedology, and radiocarbon dating are central to these models. The iterative approach of resolving the terrestrial carbon budget at a variety of time and spatial scales, and using a variety of interlinked processes, is paramount to improving our understanding of the terrestrial carbon budget and ecosystem responses to global changes.
- OSTI ID:
- 95812
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9507129--
- Journal Information:
- Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Journal Name: Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 76; ISSN BECLAG; ISSN 0012-9623
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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