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A leaky sink: Carbon emissions from forest soil will likely grow with rising temperatures
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A unique experiment has shown that forest soil could release more carbon than it absorbs on a warming planet. Image credit: Artur Stefanski
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A new study finds that, on a warming planet, more carbon is escaping the soil than is being added by plants.
The study, led by Peter Reich of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), where he is professor and director of the Institute for Global Change Biology, is one of many that have looked at how climate change affects the carbon flux from forest soils, but the first to run for more than a dozen years.
“Our experiment is unique. It’s far and away the most realistic experiment like this in the world,” says Reich.
Working at two sites in northern Minnesota on a total of 72 plots, the research team investigated two warming scenarios to monitor soil respiration, which is the process that releases carbon dioxide.