Soil organic matter and the global carbon cycle

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Abstract
There is considerable concern over the annual global increase in CO2 in the atmosphere of around 1.5 ppm. Current thinking is that it is necessary to remove either from the atmosphere or prevent the release of three gigatons (GT) per year of carbon to avoid greenhouse warming of the earth. Suggested solutions have given little or no attention to the role that soil organic matter may have in decreasing atmospheric accumulation of CO2 . The world pool of soil organic matter carbon is around 3,000 GT, so for the foreseeable future, a 0.1 per cent increase to the present supply would be needed per year to remove three GT carbon from the atmosphere. If this could be accomplished, in addition to helping to curtail the possible global greenhouse effect, massive soil improvement could result, especially if the increased soil organic matter were concentrated on lands needing improvement. Indirectly, carbon would be transferred from fossil fuel to soil organic matter. Programs in biotechnology to improve biological dinitrogen fixation needed to provide nitrogen which is required for production of stable soil organic matter and also biotechnology to improve energy efficiency of microorganisms involved in the production of stable soil organic matter from organic residues are essential to a successful plan.

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