WARMING AND SOIL RESPONSE. - Experimental evidence suggests that increased soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition at higher temperatures will result in increased carbon dioxide emissions from soils.
The effects of warming are contingent on the size of the initial soil carbon stock, with considerable losses occurring in high-latitude areas.
Global soil carbon stocks in the upper soil horizons will fall by 30 ± 30 petagrams of carbon to 203 ± 161 petagrams of carbon under one degree of warming.
A business-as-usual climate scenario would drive the loss of 55 ± 50 petagrams of carbon from the upper soil horizons by 2050.
This value is around 12–17 per cent of the expected anthropogenic emissions over this period
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