Huge Carbon Sink Exists in Soil Minerals.

• Position: EYE ON ECOLOGY - Brief article

Vast amounts of carbon can be stored by soil minerals more than a foot below the surface. The finding could help offset the rising greenhouse gas emissions helping warm the Earth's climate.

Marc Kramer, assistant professor of environmental chemistry at Washington State University Vancouver, points out that soil holds more than three times the carbon found in the atmosphere, yet its potential in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and mitigating global warming is barely understood.

He compares what we know about soil to how little we know about the deep ocean. "Hardly anyone has been down there, and they just found a new species of octopus. We know more about the surface of Mars than we do about either the oceans or soils on Earth."

Kramer says over half of the global soil carbon pool is more than one foot beneath the surface. He also found that soil organic...