Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBuried Carbon Causes Deep Concern
By Tim Radford, Climate News Network
LONDONGeographers in the US have found a new factor in the carbon cycle, and all too ominously a new potential source of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. They have identified huge deposits of fossil soils, rich in organic carbon, buried beneath the Great Plains of America.
The discovery is evidence that the subterranean soils could be a rich store, or sink, for ancient atmospheric carbon. But if the soil is exposed by erosion, or by human activities such as agriculture, deforestation or mining this treasure trove of ancient charred vegetation, now covered by wind-blown soils, could blow back into the atmosphere and add to global warming.
Erika Marin-Spiotta, a biogeographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her colleagues report in Nature Geoscience that what is known as Brady soil ancient buried soil ? formed more than 13,500 years ago in Nebraska, Kansas and other Great Plains states.
Glacial retreat
It now lies more than six metres below the surface, and it was buried by a vast deposit of loess wind-blown dust about 10,000 years ago, when the glaciers began to retreat from North America.
The significance is not that it survived the end of the Ice Age and the colonisation of the Great Plains by grazing animals, but in the fact that it is there at all, at such depths. Calculations about the world stock of soil carbon have focused on the topsoil, and the role of root systems, decaying vegetation, microbes and fungi in the natural carbon cycle. Now the climate scientists who play with models of the carbon cycle will have to think again. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/buried_carbon_causes_deep_concern_20140530
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
6 replies, 1352 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (22)
ReplyReply to this post
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Buried Carbon Causes Deep Concern (Original Post)
marmar
May 2014
OP
donco
(1,548 posts)1. kinda looks
like it is in the same area where they will be digging the pipeline.
Shivering Jemmy
(900 posts)2. Doubt a pipeline would cause significant exposure
Climate and erosion more significant factors
donco
(1,548 posts)3. Burying a pipeline under four feet of soil
causes exposure and climate erosion imo.Than you also have that aquifer thingy to consider.
Shivering Jemmy
(900 posts)6. Plenty of reason not to build the pipeline
No need to convince me.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)4. du rec.
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)5. Good Soil for a Garden
Don't let it go to waste.