According to Turco, the process of reducing carbon dioxide starts with plants.
As they grow, green plants and trees grab carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to tissue. After they die, the carbon in their tissue is incorporated into soil material and can remain in the soil for hundreds or thousands of years.
Some of that carbon is released naturally into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, but human activity has sped the process.
Fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are carbon-based, originally from plants, that release carbon into the atmosphere as they are burned. Also, cutting forests can cause an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as carbon that was held in the trees is released.
Carbon can be released from the soil into the atmosphere when it combines with oxygen. This can happen when a carbon-based fuel, such as gasoline, is burned. But it also can happen when a plow turns over the soil before planting.
"Every time you put a plow in the soil it lets in oxygen and stimulates microbial activity," Turco said. "Increased microbial activity will result in carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere."
Charles Rice, professor of agronomy at Kansas State University and director of the CASMGS program, said carbon dioxide in the atmosphere began rising in the 1700s and continued until today.
"Approximately 50 percent of the carbon in the soil, which was held in the organic matter, has been lost over the last 50 to 100 years in the United States," Rice said. "However, rather than look at this as a loss, we can look at it as the potential for returning and storing carbon in agricultural soils."
Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
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Contact: Steve Tally
tally@purdue.edu
765-494-9809
Purdue University
2-Jul-2002