The impact of agricultural soil erosion on the global carbon cycle.
Agricultural soil erosion is thought to perturb the global carbon cycle, but estimates of its effect range from a source of 1 petagram per year(-1) to a sink of the same magnitude. By using caesium-137 and carbon inventory measurements from a large-scale survey, we found consistent evidence for an erosion-induced sink of atmospheric carbon equivalent to approximately 26% of the carbon transported by erosion. Based on this relationship, we estimated a global carbon sink of 0.12 (range 0.06 to 0.27) petagrams of carbon per year(-1) resulting from erosion in the world's agricultural landscapes. Our analysis directly challenges the view that agricultural erosion represents an important source or sink for atmospheric CO2.
Van Oost
K
K
Physical and Regional Geography Research Group, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium. kristof.vanoost@uclouvain.be
Quine
T A
TA
Govers
G
G
De Gryze
S
S
Six
J
J
Harden
J W
JW
Ritchie
J C
JC
McCarty
G W
GW
Heckrath
G
G
Kosmas
C
C
Giraldez
J V
JV
da Silva
J R Marques
JR
Merckx
R
R