Scribd
Upload
34 views1 page

Greenhouse Gases: Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles

Soils play a major role in greenhouse gas emissions and storage. The three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, are all affected by soil organisms and conditions. Soil microbes control processes that transform carbon and can cause soils to be a source or sink of methane. They also facilitate nitrogen cycling through fixation, mineralization, nitrification, and denitrification. Whether soils emit or sequester greenhouse gases depends on their physical, chemical, and biological makeup as well as management practices. Ecosystems containing soil will also respond variably to climate change through respiration, photosynthesis, and carbon storage, potentially mitigating or exacerbating climate change impacts. NIFA supports research through grants to better

Uploaded by

Liam Lagwed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
34 views1 page

Greenhouse Gases: Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles

Soils play a major role in greenhouse gas emissions and storage. The three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, are all affected by soil organisms and conditions. Soil microbes control processes that transform carbon and can cause soils to be a source or sink of methane. They also facilitate nitrogen cycling through fixation, mineralization, nitrification, and denitrification. Whether soils emit or sequester greenhouse gases depends on their physical, chemical, and biological makeup as well as management practices. Ecosystems containing soil will also respond variably to climate change through respiration, photosynthesis, and carbon storage, potentially mitigating or exacerbating climate change impacts. NIFA supports research through grants to better

Uploaded by

Liam Lagwed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1/ 1

Greenhouse Gases

Soils affect many of the processes that can mitigate or exacerbate global change. Many NIFA activities relate
to the potential for soil to serve as a sink for greenhouse gases.
Carbon and nitrogen cycles
The most important greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4).
While these gases have many non-agricultural sources, soil organisms and soil conditions play a major role
in the consumption and production of these gases. Judicious management of soils can have a tremendous
potential for helping to control or reduce these gases.
Soil microorganisms control many of the processes that transform organic carbon into the greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide. At the same time, soils supply support, water, and nutrients necessary for plants to grow
and fix carbon dioxide in organic form. Soils can also be either a source (chemical reduction) or sink
(oxidation) for methane, another carbon-containing greenhouse gas, depending on soil conditions, such as
wetness, microbial community, crop productivity, and soil chemical and physical properties.
Many nutrients, including nitrogen, are recycled into usable forms by soil microorganisms and/or are stored
and held against loss to ground and surface water by soil particles. Atmospheric nitrogen is fixed in organic
form through free-living soil organisms and by symbiotic associations of soil microorganisms and plants.
Organic nitrogen can then be mineralized to ammonia and oxidized to nitrate (both usable by plants) by soil
microorganisms. They can be transformed to nitrogen gas and/or the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide by other
microorganisms. The balance of these processes and potential of soils to exacerbate or mitigate greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere depends on physical, chemical, and microbiological properties of soils,
as well as climatic conditions, soil and crop management practices, vegetation, and atmospheric
composition.
NIFA supports research, education, and extension activities in all of these areas through competitive and
non-competitive grants and through collaboration with our land-grant partners and in interagency
cooperation and planning.
Ecosystems
Soils and soil organisms form an integral part of natural and managed ecosystems that can be altered by
climate change and can affect the concentrations of greenhouse gases through respiration, sequestration,
and photosynthesis. The various components of ecosystems all interact to determine the overall response of
the system to changing climate and atmospheric composition, as well as the feedback to the atmosphere to
mitigate or exacerbate potential future climate change. Each type of ecosystem in each different region, soil
type, and type and level of management may react differently to changing conditions.
NIFA supports research, education, and extension activities aimed at understanding and eventually being
able to predict and manage these effects through competitive and non-competitive grants and through
collaboration with our land-grant partners and interagency cooperation and planning.

You might also like