Impact of soil erosion on soil organic carbon stocks

Excerpt

Soil erosion by wind and water and subsequent sediment transport and depositional processes may lead to soil organic carbon (SOC) loss especially from a sloping agricultural land unit. The erosion processes change land unit SOC stock by transporting SOC-rich sediment off an agricultural land unit, oxidizing SOC stocks, and releasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere, as well as causing loss of SOC through surface runoff. Thus, erosion, transport, and depositional processes redistribute landscape SOC, enhance oxidation, and create a SOC source and a sink. However, redistributed SOC to bottomland soils is not sequestered SOC if it originates outside the borders of the measured land unit. In order to establish an active sink for soil carbon (C) sequestration, plants on a land unit must take CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it in the humus or SOC fraction within the agricultural land unit. Therefore, the objective of this review and analysis paper is to understand and highlight the effects of soil erosion, transport, and deposition on SOC stock.

Natural or so-called geological erosion, an important terrestrial process, has shaped the surface of the earth and formed some of the most fertile (alluvial and loess) soils since the beginning of time.