> How does soil composition affect climate?

How does soil composition affect climate?

Posted at: 2015-03-12 
Soil composition has a huge effect on climate, it's ability to hold and store water (or not) it's ability to store carbon, all make a difference, it is said that one extra inch of topsoil around the world could hold all the CO2 in our atmosphere.

We do as lot of harm by growing crops, the tilling of the soil and the use of nitrogen fertilizers reduces it's carbon content, meaning that carbon enters the atmosphere as CO2.

Rainforest soils have very little carbon (and nutrients) as the excessive rainfall they receive washes them away, but the trees they support contain and store the carbon, Savannahs are the most healthy soils, the deep roots of the natural grasses hold the soil together and the annual turn over of the plants ensures quick capture and storage of CO2 (not that I think CO2 makes much difference to our climate) and the rich deep soil hold lots of moisture avoiding desert conditions.

Land management in my opinion is more important climate wise, than controlling CO2 emissions.

Hardly at all. Climate might affect soil composition, and soil composition might affect WEATHER, such as with the dust bowl era in the 1930s Central US, but climate is affected by larger forces.

Soil composition? Are you referring to organic composition, mineral composition....? Water? Methane? Earthworms? In all of these, there is no affect that you could attribute to soil composition IMO.

when theres a hotter climate theres less water which means plants dont grow which means less organic matter and moisture for the soil also less topsoil

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