NASC Colloquium: What's Soil got to do with Climate Change?

Asmeret Berhe, Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry, and Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced, will present. The soil system stores twice as much more carbon than the atmosphere and all of the world’s vegetation combined. Exchange of greenhouse gases between the soil and the atmosphere control composition of the earth’s climate. Over the last two centuries, human actions have increased the flux of greenhouse gases from soil to the atmosphere. Recent studies are highlighting the role of soil management
to reverse the increasing concentrations of greenhouses in the atmosphere by implementation of climate smart land management practices. This presentation will include discussion on fundamental mechanisms by which soil system controls the earth’s climate, potential of different land management practices to bend the curve of increasing concentrations of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere; and the urgent need to center soils and equity in efforts to address climate change.