Soil Carbon - Losses of Soil Carbon

Losses of Soil Carbon

Although exact quantities are difficult to measure, human activities have caused massive losses of soil organic carbon. First was the use of fire, which removes soil cover and leads to immediate and continuing losses of soil organic carbon. Tillage and drainage both expose soil organic matter to oxygen and oxidation. In the Netherlands, East Anglia, Florida, and the California delta, subsidence of peat lands from oxidation has been severe as a result of tillage and drainage.

Grazing management that exposes soil (either excessive or insufficient recovery periods) can also cause losses of soil organic carbon.

Read more about this topic:  Soil Carbon

Famous quotes containing the words losses and/or soil:

    Hold back thy hours, dark Night, till we have done;
    The Day will come too soon.
    Young maids will curse thee, if thou steal’st away
    And leav’st their losses open to the day.
    Stay, stay, and hide
    The blushes of the bride.
    Francis Beaumont (1584-1616)

    But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)