Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

CO2 absorption by alkaline soils and its implication to the global carbon cycle

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Environmental Geology

Abstract

Motivated by the rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 due to human activities since the Industrial Revolution, and the climate changes it produced, the world’s concerned scientific community has made a huge effort to investigate the global carbon cycle. However, the results reveal that the global CO2 budget cannot be balanced, unless a “missing sink” is invoked. Although numerous studies claimed to find the “missing sink”, none of those claims has been widely accepted. This current study showed that alkaline soil on land are absorbing CO2 at a rate of 0.3–3.0μmolm−2s−1 with an inorganic, non-biological process. The intensity of this CO2 absorption is determined by the salinity, alkalinity, temperature and water content of the saline/alkaline soils, which are widely distributed on land. Further studies revealed that high salinity or alkalinity positively affected the CO2 absorbing intensity, while high temperature and water content had a negative effect on the CO2 absorbing intensity of these soils. This inorganic, non-biological process of CO2 absorption by alkaline soils might have significant implications to the global carbon budget accounting.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig.1
Fig.2
Fig.3
Fig.4
Fig.5
Fig.6
Fig.7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aubinet M, Grelle A, Ibrom A, Rannik Ü, Moncrieff J, Foken T, Kowalski AS, Martin PH, Berbigier P, Bernhofer Ch, Clement R, Elbers J, Granier A, Grunwald T, Morgestern K, Pilegarrd K, Rbemann C, Snijders W, Valentini R, Vesala T (2000) Estimates of the net carbon and water exchange of forests: the EUROFLUX methodology. Adv Ecol Res 30:113–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker JM, Ochsner TE, Venterea RT, Griffis TJ (2007) Tillage and soil carbon sequestration—what do we really know? Agric Ecosyst Environ 118:1–5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carey EV, Sala A, Keane R, Callaway RM (2001) Are old forests underestimated as global carbon sinks? Glob Change Biol 7:339–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson JJC, Smith P (2007) Carbon losses from soil and its consequences for land-use management. Sci Total Environ 382:165–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Wit HA, Palosuo T, Hylen G, Liski J (2006) A carbon budget of forest biomass and soils in southeast Norway calculated using a widely applicable method. For Ecol Manage 225:15–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Detwiler RP, Hall CAS (1988) Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle. Science 239:42–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Falkowski P (2000) The global carbon cycle: a test of our knowledge of earth as a system. Science 290:291–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO (2000) The United Nations. http://www.fao.org/ag/AGL/agll/spush/topic2.htm. Accessed 23 March 2007

  • Fisher MJ, Rao IM, Ayarza MA, Lascano CE, Sanz JI, Thomas RJ, Vera RR (1994) Carbon storage by introduced deep-rooted grasses in the South American savannas. Nature 371:236–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fung IY, Doney SC, Lindsay K, Jasmin J (2005) Evolution of carbon sinks in a changing climate. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:11201–11206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grace J (2004) Understanding and managing the global carbon cycle. J Ecol 92:189–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grace J, Malhi Y (2002) Carbon dioxide goes with the flow. Nature 416:594–595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grace J, Lloyd J, McIntyre J, Miranda AC, Meir P, Miranda HS, Nobre C, Moncrieff J, Massheder J, Malhi Y, Wright I, Gash J (1995) Carbon dioxide uptake by an undisturbed tropical rain forest in southwest Amazonia, 1992 to 1993. Science 270:778–780

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodale CL, Davidson EA (2002) Uncertain sinks in the shrubs. Nature 418:593–594

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karberg NJ, Pregitzer KS, King JS, Friend AL, Wood JR (2005) Soil carbon dioxide partial pressure and dissolved inorganic carbonate chemistry under elevated carbon dioxide and ozone. Oecologia 142:296–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keeling RF, Piper SC, Heimann M (1996) Global and hemispheric CO2 sinks deduced from changes in atmospheric O2 concentration. Nature 381:218–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler TJ, Harvey CF (2001) Global flux of carbon dioxide into groundwater. Geophys Res Lett 28:279–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lal R (2003) Soil erosion and the global carbon budget. Environ Int 29:437–450

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Quéré C, Aumont O, Bopp L, Bousquet P, Ciais P, Francey R, Heimann M, Keeling CD, Keeling RF, Kheshgi H, Peylin P, Piper SC, Prentice IC, Rayner PJ (2003) Two decades of ocean CO2 sink and variability. Tellus 55B:649–656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu RK (1999) Methods of agrochemical soil analysis. China Agricultural Science Press, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Melnikov NB, O’Neill BC (2006) Learning about the carbon cycle from global budget data. Geophys Res Lett 33:1–4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myneni RB, Dong J, Tucker CJ, Kaufmann RK, Kauppi PE, Liski J, Zhou L, Alexeyev V, Hughes MK (2001) A large carbon sink in the woody biomass of Northern forests. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:14784–14789

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakazawa (1997) The variability and cycle of carbon dioxide and methane. Glob Environ Res 2:5–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Schimel DS, House JI, Hibbard KA, Bousquet P, Ciais P, Braswell BH, Apps MJ, Baker D, Bondeau A, Canadell J, Churkina G, Gramer W, Denning AS, Field CB, Friendlingstein P, Goodale C, Heimann M, Houghton RA, Melillo JM, Moore B 3rd, Murdiyarso D, Noble I, Pacala SW, Prentice IC, Raupach MR, Rayner PJ, Scholes RJ, Steffen WL, Wirth C (2001) Recent patterns and mechanisms of carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems. Nature 414:169–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schindler DW (1999) The mysterious missing sink. Nature 398:105–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger WH (1982) Carbon storage in the caliche of arid soils: a case study from Arizona. Soil Sci 133:247–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger WH (1985) The formation of caliche in soils of the Mojave desert, California. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 49:57–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger WH (1997) Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change, 2nd edn. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger WH (2000) Carbon sequestration in soils: some cautions amidst optimism. Agric Ecosyst Environ 82:121–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sedjo RA (1992) Temperate forest ecosystems in the global carbon. Ambio 21:274–277

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegenthaler U, Sarmiento JL (1993) Atmospheric carbon dioxide and the ocean. Nature 365:119–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson BA, Verburg PSJ (2006) Effluxed CO2-13C from sterilized and unsterilized treatments of a calcareous soil. Soil Biol Biochem 38:1727–1733

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tans PP, Fung Y, Takahashi T (1990) Observational constraints on the global atmospheric CO2 budget. Science 247:1431–1438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y, Hsieh YP (2002) Uncertainties and novel prospects in the study of the soil carbon dynamics. Chemosphere 49:791–804

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang YG, Xiao DL, Li Y (2007) Temporal–spatial change in soil degradation and its relationship with landscape types in a desert–oasis ecotone: a case study in the Fubei region of Xinjiang Province, China. Environ Geol 51:1019–1028

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wofsy SC (2001) Where has all the carbon gone? Science 292:2261–2263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodbury PB, Smith JE, Health LS (2007) Carbon sequestration in the U.S. forest sector from 1990 to 2010. For Ecol Manage 241:14–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu H, Zhao CY, Li J, Li YJ, Wang F (2007) Analysis of impact factors on scrubland soil respiration in the southern Gurbantunggut desert, central Asia. Environ Geol (in press). doi:10.1007/s00254-007-0921-5

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all staff at the Fukang Station of Desert Ecology for technical support and theoretical discussions. Authors also thank Drs. H. Xu, L.S. Tang and J. Ma for reading and comment on the early version of the manuscript. Financial support was from the “Knowledge Innovation Project” (Grant No. KZCX2-YW-431) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fukang Station of Desert Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Jingxia Xie, Yan Li, Cuixia Zhai, Chenhua Li & Zhongdong Lan

  2. Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10049, China

    Jingxia Xie, Cuixia Zhai & Chenhua Li

Authors
  1. Jingxia Xie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yan Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cuixia Zhai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Chenhua Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Zhongdong Lan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yan Li.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xie, J., Li, Y., Zhai, C. et al. CO2 absorption by alkaline soils and its implication to the global carbon cycle. Environ Geol 56, 953–961 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1197-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1197-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation