The role of soil carbon on climate change was the topic of this week’s Macaulay Institute seminar. Soils play a major part in the global carbon cycle and contain three times more carbon than is in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, so small losses of carbon from soils to the atmosphere could have profound negative effects on climate change.

Entitled ‘Projected Changes In European Soil Carbon Over The Next 100 Years’, the seminar took place today at The Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen.

The seminar was delivered by Dr Jo Smith, senior lecturer, School of Biological Sciences , University of Aberdeen . Dr Smith is a member of the Agriculture and Environment Committee of the Society of the Chemical Industry and is also a member of the NERC Soils Science Advisory Committee.

Commenting on the seminar, Dr Smith said, “One of the biggest threats to our planet in the coming century is climate change. Climate change is caused by greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, being trapped in the atmosphere. The results of our research suggest that soil carbon will be lost as climate warms, this means that the atmosphere would gain even more carbon dioxide.”

The Macaulay Institute is the premier land use research institute in the UK. Two hundred and seventy staff are based at the Macaulay Institute at Craigiebuckler in Aberdeen. The Macaulay Institute aims to be an international leader in research on the use of rural land resources for the benefit of people and the environment and is involved in research across the globe; from Scotland to Chile and China. More about the Macaulay Institute can be found at www.macaulay.ac.uk .

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