Peatlands store around a third of Earth’s soil carbon, and a new study begins to reveal how the ecosystems’ organic matter changes with depth.
soils
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Life in the Hyporheic Zone
Defining the chemical relationships between water, sediment, and organisms that thrive beneath riverbeds.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Major Uncertainty in Estimates of Carbon Trapped in Soil
A new study reveals discrepancies between global databases and field measurements.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Deeper Understanding of Carbon Decomposition in Arctic Soils
Physical parameters may help scientists extrapolate Arctic carbon soil losses from the local to the regional scale, according to the results of a yearlong incubation experiment.
Posted inScience Updates
Understanding High-Latitude Methane in a Warming Climate
Climate change could spur greenhouse gas release from the Arctic. A new project will synthesize existing data to improve uncertain predictions.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Pedotransfer Functions Bring New Life to Earth System Modeling
A recent paper in Reviews of Geophysics describes how currently available soil information furthers our understanding of soil processes and their integration in Earth system modeling.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Wet Soils Elevate Nighttime Temperatures
Soil moisture can elevate overnight temperatures, offsetting daytime cooling, especially over areas of strong land-atmosphere interactions.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Humans to Blame for Higher Drought Risk in Some Regions
New observations and analysis dispel remaining doubts that anthropogenic climate change is expanding dry areas in northern midlatitudes.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Searching for Organic Carbon in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica
Researchers identify the first evidence of microbial respiration in desiccated Antarctic permafrost soils.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Stories in the Soil
A series of field experiments in the U.S. Midwest is investigating how past, present, and future human activities and climate affect the health of soil.