The end of the trip in Carbon land

Hi everyone in this last post before this trip come to the end.

I will summarise the route we followed so far. This wonderful trip in Carbon-land has begun few months ago introducing the Carbon element.

Right after that we discuss various topics some of them referred below:

• carbon cycle, the fluxes and the big reservoirs of the Carbon in our planet
• human influence in the one for these reservoirs, the atmosphere
• how the other two reservoirs fight back the human CO­₂ emissions
• soil carbon, organic matter and the decomposition
• examples of the remote sensing technologies that helps to quantify  the terrestrial carbon
• the global CO₂ emissions and footprint
• the permafrost layer near the artic
• terrestrial carbon aggregation
• importance of protection of our lands!

It was a nice journey in this land and I hope that everyone enjoyed my posts. I personally learnt many new things about the carbon and I will try to keep this blog updated with news about this topic. 

THANKS A LOT for being my fellow travellers!! Hope to see you soon!

 

Carbon Protection - Aggregation

Hi everyone. In the last post I wrote about the need of the carbon protection. Today we will see how the carbon is protected inside the soil.

Frist of all, the soil ecosystem can be influenced by (Nikolaidis, 2011):

1. The climate change
2. Changes in land use
3. Fertilisation
4. Grazing

 The decomposition of the soil carbon is strongly positively affected by the above procedures. However, it has been shown that the decomposition rates reduced with the raise of the aggregate size, thus, the size of the aggregates plays a vital role in the decomposition (von Lützow et al., 2007).

Components of an aggregate

The aggregation of the particles provides structure to the soil and this has been associated with the soil fertility (Stamati et al., 2013). For example, agronomically valuable soil has more than 60% of the aggregates between 0.25 and 10 mm diameter (Banwart et al., 2011).

The aggregation plays a vital role in the decomposition of the organic carbon, protecting it from the oxygen and the microorganisms by sealing it inside the aggregates (Six et al., 2002).

Analytical aggregation strucure

 

It can be concluded, that the aggregates are the shield of the carbon in the fight of the decomposition helping the carbon sequestration in the soil and, undoubtedly, the stronger the shield, the better the results!

Protect the soil carbon!

Following the 5^th article about the soil carbon, firstly I would like to explain why the carbon in the soil is important.

First of all, the soil can be characterized as both carbon emitter and carbon storage as we saw in the 2^nd post. 

The soil organic matter (SOM) is one of the main contributors of the carbon cycle related with the soil (SEC (2006)1165). It plays a major role in the soil fertility, soil structure and soil biodiversity (SEC (2006)620).

The EU recognises the importance of the soil carbon and the human impact on it (COM (2006)231), as it is crucial for the survival of the human kind. The main threats causing by the human interaction with the soil are (Banwart et al., 2011):

1. Soil erosion
2. Metal and acid toxicity
3. Soil compression
4. Decline in the biodiversity of the soil ecosystem
5. Soil carbon reaching

According to FAO (Bot and Benites, 2005) some of the most important activities of the soil organic matter are:

1. It helps to increase the soil fertility, as it holds the cations and the nutrients in organic forms in the soil, so as the necessary nutrients for the growth of plants to be gradually released.
2. The soil particles are binded together resulting in the creation of aggregations improving the soil structure and the aeration of the soil.
3. It also provides food for microorganisms living in the soil.

To conclude, this post tries to point out the importance of the soil carbon which is crucial for the soil fertility and it is strongly affected by the human’s activities. We should try to protect our lands on which we are so dependent.

See you in the next post