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Research Article

Legacy of human-induced C erosion and burial on soil–atmosphere C exchange

Kristof Van Oost, Gert Verstraeten, Sebastian Doetterl, Bastiaan Notebaert, François Wiaux, Nils Broothaerts, and Johan Six
PNAS November 20, 2012 109 (47) 19492-19497; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211162109
Kristof Van Oost
aGeorges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;
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  • For correspondence: kristof.vanoost@uclouvain.be
Gert Verstraeten
bDivision of Geography, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium; and
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Sebastian Doetterl
aGeorges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;
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Bastiaan Notebaert
bDivision of Geography, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium; and
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François Wiaux
aGeorges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;
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Nils Broothaerts
bDivision of Geography, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium; and
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Johan Six
cDepartment of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
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  1. Edited by Susan E. Trumbore, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany, and approved October 9, 2012 (received for review July 4, 2012)

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Abstract

Carbon exchange associated with accelerated erosion following land cover change is an important component of the global C cycle. In current assessments, however, this component is not accounted for. Here, we integrate the effects of accelerated C erosion across point, hillslope, and catchment scale for the 780-km2 Dijle River catchment over the period 4000 B.C. to A.D. 2000 to demonstrate that accelerated erosion results in a net C sink. We found this long-term C sink to be equivalent to 43% of the eroded C and to have offset 39% (17–66%) of the C emissions due to anthropogenic land cover change since the advent of agriculture. Nevertheless, the erosion-induced C sink strength is limited by a significant loss of buried C in terrestrial depositional stores, which lagged the burial. The time lag between burial and subsequent loss at this study site implies that the C buried in eroded terrestrial deposits during the agricultural expansion of the last 150 y cannot be assumed to be inert to further destabilization, and indeed might become a significant C source. Our analysis exemplifies that accounting for the non–steady-state C dynamics in geomorphic active systems is pertinent to understanding both past and future anthropogenic global change.

  • soil erosion
  • soil organic carbon
  • geomorphic cascade
  • human impact
  • global carbon cycling

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kristof.vanoost{at}uclouvain.be.
  • ↵2Present address: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Sustainable Agroecosystems Group, Universitätstrasse 2, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.

  • Author contributions: K.V.O. and G.V. designed research; K.V.O., G.V., S.D., B.N., F.W., and N.B. performed research; K.V.O., G.V., S.D., B.N., and J.S. analyzed data; and K.V.O., G.V., and J.S. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1211162109/-/DCSupplemental.

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Soil erosion and C cycling
Kristof Van Oost, Gert Verstraeten, Sebastian Doetterl, Bastiaan Notebaert, François Wiaux, Nils Broothaerts, Johan Six
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov 2012, 109 (47) 19492-19497; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211162109

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Soil erosion and C cycling
Kristof Van Oost, Gert Verstraeten, Sebastian Doetterl, Bastiaan Notebaert, François Wiaux, Nils Broothaerts, Johan Six
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov 2012, 109 (47) 19492-19497; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211162109
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