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Soils and climate change
- Healthy soils are a valuable lever for climate regulation.
- Soil helps regulate earth’s temperature and absorbs many greenhouse gasses.
- A global rise in temperature will melt Arctic sea ice and increase sea level rise.
- Sea level rise will cause inundation of coastal areas and sea water intrusion, causing soil and groundwater salinization.
- Soils sequester carbon: 1417 billion tonnes of organic carbon is stocked in the first meter of soil and 716 billion tonnes in the top 30 cm alone.
- Soil formation is also controlled by climate change: alluvial soils are formed through heavy rain and subsequent floods, eolian soils are formed through wind erosion like in deserts.
