Perelman, Michael wrote:
The Wall St. Journal has an article about the prospects for burying C02.
in water or soil?
The idea always seemed like a non-starter to me. Does it really have
any promise?
and Gar Lipow wrote:
And you can't be certain once you sequestered CO2
that it will stay sequestered.
Science 9 September 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5741, pp. 1711 - 1713
DOI: 10.1126/science.1110700
Reports
Rising Atmospheric CO2 Reduces Sequestration of Root-Derived Soil Carbon
James Heath,1* Edward Ayres,1{dagger} Malcolm Possell,2 Richard D.
Bardgett,1 Helaina I. J. Black,3 Helen Grant,4 Phil Ineson,5 Gerhard
Kerstiens1
Forests have a key role as carbon sinks, which could potentially
mitigate the continuing increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentration and associated climate change. We show that carbon dioxide
enrichment, although causing short-term growth stimulation in a range of
European tree species, also leads to an increase in soil microbial
respiration and a marked decline in sequestration of root-derived carbon
in the soil. These findings indicate that, should similar processes
operate in forest ecosystems, the size of the annual terrestrial carbon
sink may be substantially reduced, resulting in a positive feedback on
the rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.
[snip]
Nevertheless, this study clearly demonstrates that a mechanism exists
that may drastically affect the potential for sequestration of new
carbon in forest soils. Even small shifts in the carbon balance of
forests could cause a large feedback on atmospheric CO2 concentration,
given that the annual exchange of CO2 in the form of terrestrial
photosynthesis and respiration is approximately 9 to 10 times as large
as annual emissions from the burning of fossil fuels (3, 21). Our
results suggest that the incorporation of root-derived carbon into
stable, medium- or long-term forest soil carbon pools may be
substantially reduced as atmospheric CO2 concentration exceeds 100 µmol
mol^–1 above current ambient. This would have the potential to trigger a
large positive feedback on the rate of increase in global atmospheric
CO2 concentration and associated climate change.
les schaffer
