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Title: Greenhouse gas emissions from soil under changing environmental conditions

Author
item SUBKE, JENS-ARNE - University Of Stirling
item LAMERS, MARC - University Of Hohenheim
item HERBST, MICHAEL - Juelich Research Center
item Franzluebbers, Alan

Submitted to: European Journal of Soil Science
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/27/2013
Publication Date: 10/1/2013
Citation: Subke, J., Lamers, M., Herbst, M., Franzluebbers, A.J. 2013. Greenhouse gas emissions from soil under changing environmental conditions. European Journal of Soil Science. 64:547–549.

Interpretive Summary: This manuscript is the Guest Editors’ Introduction to a special issue on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. The papers were assembled following presentation at EuroSoil 2012. Exchange of greenhouse gases between soils and the atmosphere is a natural consequence of several ecosystem processes. The balance of exchange contributes to the global atmospheric greenhouse gas budget, in which soils can act as either a net source or sink of greenhouse gases. Key ecosystem processes participating in greenhouse gas uptake and emissions are plant photosynthesis (resulting in organic matter input to soils), plant respiration, animal and soil microbial respiration (both aerobic and anaerobic), fire and soil microbial transformations of nitrogen. There are also many human-induced transformations that create greenhouse gas emissions, either directly through burning of fossil fuels and industrial processing of mined natural resources or indirectly through land-use change, manipulation of natural processes through various management strategies, altering natural cycles of water and nutrients and changing energy flows. Human-induced changes to the exchange of greenhouse gases among plants, soils and the atmosphere are not limited to their effects on the atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases: significant changes to the land surface of our planet itself have created challenges that require understanding of how a changing environment feeds back to affect greenhouse gas emissions.

Technical Abstract: This manuscript is the Guest Editors’ Introduction to a special issue on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. The papers were assembled following presentation at EuroSoil 2012. Exchange of greenhouse gases between soils and the atmosphere is a natural consequence of several ecosystem processes. The balance of exchange contributes to the global atmospheric greenhouse gas budget, in which soils can act as either a net source or sink of greenhouse gases. Key ecosystem processes participating in greenhouse gas uptake and emissions are plant photosynthesis (resulting in organic matter input to soils), plant respiration, animal and soil microbial respiration (both aerobic and anaerobic), fire and soil microbial transformations of nitrogen. There are also many human-induced transformations that create greenhouse gas emissions, either directly through burning of fossil fuels and industrial processing of mined natural resources or indirectly through land-use change, manipulation of natural processes through various management strategies, altering natural cycles of water and nutrients and changing energy flows. Human-induced changes to the exchange of greenhouse gases among plants, soils and the atmosphere are not limited to their effects on the atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases: significant changes to the land surface of our planet itself have created challenges that require understanding of how a changing environment feeds back to affect greenhouse gas emissions.