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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #102929
Title: ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF EROSION ON SOIL ORGANIC CARBON POOLS AND FLUXES

Author
item Starr, Gordon
item LAL, R - THE OHIO STATE UNIV.
item KIMBLE, J - USDA-NRCS
item Owens, Lloyd

Submitted to: Advances in Soil Science
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/3/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: There are an array of interrelated pools, fluxes, and processes that have some bearing on the problem of assessing the impact of erosion on SOC dynamics. The fluxes of direct erosional transport, GHG emission, and sedimentation are inter-linked with pools of C in eroded and depositional landscapes, buried aquatic sediments, and dissolved and particulate suspended sediment C in rivers, lakes, and oceans. Assessment methods focus on specific pools and fluxes. As a result, data are disjointed and a comprehensive understanding of interconnected pools and fluxes remains elusive. Quantitative inferences drawn from the limited and sketchy data sets that exist are, by necessity, hypothetical when larger (i.e. continental and global) scales are considered or the net impact of erosion on GHG dynamics are estimated. Based on the literature discussed in this manuscript, erosion leads to losses of SOC from the soil pool and reductions in above and below ground biomass in eroded landscapes while transferring some C to sediments and depositional landscapes that accumulate C.