Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Early Online
    • Archive
    • Subject Collections
  • Info For
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Subscribers
    • Advertisers
  • About
    • About JSWC
    • Editorial Board
    • Permissions
    • Alerts
    • RSS Feeds
    • Contact Us

User menu

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Early Online
    • Archive
    • Subject Collections
  • Info For
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Subscribers
    • Advertisers
  • About
    • About JSWC
    • Editorial Board
    • Permissions
    • Alerts
    • RSS Feeds
    • Contact Us
  • Follow SWCS on Twitter
  • Visit SWCS on Facebook
Research ArticleA Section

Promise and limitations of soils to minimize climate change

Rattan Lal
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation July 2008, 63 (4) 113A-118A; DOI: https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.63.4.113A
Rattan Lal
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Excerpt

The atmospheric abundance of carbon dioxide (CO2) has increased by 36% from 280 ppm in ~1750 to 381 ppm in 2006 with an annual rate of increase during the 2000s at 1.93 ppm (World Meteorological Organization 2006; Canadell et al. 2007). Principal sources of CO2 since 1850 have been fossil fuel combustion contributing ~330 Pg C and land use change contributing 158 Pg C. The latter, attributed to deforestation and the attendant biomass burning and soil tillage along with erosion and other degradation processes, includes an estimated emission of 78±12 Pg C from world soils (Lal 1999). Of the total annual emission of approximately 9.4 Pg C y-1 during the 2000s (including 7.5 Pg C y-1 from fossil fuel combustion and 1.9 Pg C y-1 from land use conversion), 4.1 Pg C (44%) is absorbed annually by the atmosphere, 2.2 Pg C (23%) by the ocean, and 2.7 Pg C (33%) by land-based sinks (Canadell et. al. 2007). The capacity of the land-based sink is progressively decreasing in proportion to total emissions (table 1; Canadell et al. 2007), probably due to gradual increase in extent and severity of soil degradation.

About 56% of the anthropogenic emissions of CO2 are being …

Footnotes

  • Rattan Lal is a professor of soil science and director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

  • © 2008 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

Log in using your username and password

Forgot your user name or password?

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation: 63 (4)
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Vol. 63, Issue 4
July/August 2008
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Promise and limitations of soils to minimize climate change
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
3 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
Promise and limitations of soils to minimize climate change
Rattan Lal
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation Jul 2008, 63 (4) 113A-118A; DOI: 10.2489/jswc.63.4.113A

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Promise and limitations of soils to minimize climate change
Rattan Lal
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation Jul 2008, 63 (4) 113A-118A; DOI: 10.2489/jswc.63.4.113A
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

A Section

  • To protect and conserve: Fifty years of Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts
  • Sustaining soil for advancing peace: World is one family
  • Managing plant surplus carbon to generate soil organic matter in regenerative agriculture
Show more A Section

Features

  • Youth water education: Programs and potential in the American Midwest
  • Working toward sustainable agricultural intensification in the Red River Delta of Vietnam
  • Soil science beyond COVID-19
Show more Features

Similar Articles

Content

  • Current Issue
  • Early Online
  • Archive
  • Subject Collections

Info For

  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Advertisers

Customer Service

  • Subscriptions
  • Permissions and Reprints
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy

SWCS

  • Membership
  • Publications
  • Meetings and Events
  • Conservation Career Center

© 2022 Soil and Water Conservation Society