A study finds that in a globally distributed set of rivers, carbon-14 ages of plant-derived carbon are negatively correlated with temperature and precipitation, suggesting that soil organic carbon turnover may control carbon ages and that carbon ages may influence soil organic carbon sensitivity to climate variation; the results suggest that monitoring riverine organic carbon may enable monitoring of climate change-induced perturbations of soil organic carbon turnover, according to the authors.
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Article #20-11585: "Climate control on terrestrial biospheric carbon turnover," by Timothy I. Eglinton, Valier V. Galy, et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Timothy I. Eglinton, ETH Zurich, SWITZERLAND; email: < timothy.eglinton@erdw.ethz.ch >; Valier V. Galy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA; email: < vgaly@whoi.edu >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences