What removes soil carbon from the soil?
Microorganisms can combine the carbon in soil organic matter with oxygen, creating carbon dioxide. In the soil, oxygen is often limited, especially deep down. When soil is plowed or turned over and exposed to air, these microbes can turn much of the carbon into atmospheric carbon dioxide. William Albrecht, who was soils professor at the University of Missouri during the 1920s and 1930s, wrote in the 1938 Yearbook of Agriculture: “But with the removal of water through furrows, ditches, and tiles, and the aeration of the soil by cultivation, what the pioneers did in effect was to fan the former simmering fires of acidification and preservation into a blaze of bacterial oxidation and more complete combustion. The combustion of the accumulated organic matter began to take place at a rate far greater than its annual accumulation. Along with the increased rate of destruction of the supply accumulated from the past, the removal of crops lessened the chance for annual additions. The age-old pr
Microorganisms can combine the carbon in soil organic matter with oxygen, creating carbon dioxide. In the soil, oxygen is often limited, especially deep down. When soil is plowed or turned over and exposed to air, these microbes can turn much of the carbon into atmospheric carbon dioxide. William Albrecht, who was soils professor at the University of Missouri during the 1920s and 1930s, wrote in the 1938 Yearbook of Agriculture: “But with the removal of water through furrows, ditches, and tiles, and the aeration of the soil by cultivation, what the pioneers did in effect was to fan the former simmering fires of acidification and preservation into a blaze of bacterial oxidation and more complete combustion. The combustion of the accumulated organic matter began to take place at a rate far greater than its annual accumulation. Along with the increased rate of destruction of the supply accumulated from the past, the removal of crops lessened the chance for annual additions. The age-old pr
