A carbon sink that can't be filled

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/uot-acs010716.php

Public Release: 7-Jan-2016
A carbon sink that can't be filled
Organic matter in forests is breaking down more quickly with climate change, accelerating the release of carbon into the atmosphere
University of Toronto

Forests can store as much as 45 percent of the world's terrestrial carbon, making them a critical part of the process of regulating climate change.

As global temperatures rise, though, the organic matter in forests appears to break down more quickly, accelerating the release of carbon into the atmosphere.

This surprising conclusion comes out of a long-term study that was intended to find means to mitigate global warming, not exacerbate it.

"Our question was, 'How much carbon can the soil hold?'" says UTSC professor of environmental chemistry, Myrna Simpson. "But in our experiments, we found that soil was not the limiting factor. We couldn't even get to the carbon saturation point."

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"I want to emphasize that this was just one forest. We don't know if this is a global phenomenon," she says. "We're looking now to see how vegetation, temperature, moisture in different regions affects the process. These results just suggest that for forests like the Harvard Forest, adding extra litter is not a way to mitigate climate change and enhance carbon storage."