Towards constraining the magnitude of global agricultural sediment and soil organic carbon fluxes

Auteur(s) et Affiliation(s)



Description :
The aim of this study was to test the assumptions underlying existing assessments and to reduce the uncertainty associated with global estimates of agricultural soil and soil organic carbon (SOC) erosion. The AA. parameterized a simplified erosion model driven by coarse global databases using an empirical database that covers the conterminous USA. The good agreement between their model results and empirical estimates indicate that the approach presented here captures the essence of agricultural erosion at the scales of continents and that it may be used to predict the significance of erosion for the global carbon cycle and its impact on soil functions. It is showed that erosion-induced changes in topsoil SOC content are significant at a global scale (an average SOC loss of 22% in 50 years) and agricultural soils should therefore be considered as dynamic systems that can change rapidly.


Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Earth surface processes and landforms, issn : 0197-9337, 2012, vol. 37, n°. 6, p. 642-655, nombre de pages : 14, Références bibliographiques : 2 p.

Date :
2012

Editeur :
Pays édition : Royaume-Uni, Chichester, Wiley