Wind erosion processes influence the long-term carbon balance of soils!

Wind erosion on arable land is not restricted to soil losses per se, but also leads to disproportionately high losses of carbon and nutrient-rich fine material from sandy soils due to sorting processes. This is a well-known phenomenon in agricultural steppe regions. Until now these losses are not regarded in regional or global C-balances, because the quantification of long-term C-losses is difficult to assess with short-term measurements of single wind erosion events.

Recently, soil scientists from the University of Kiel, the Federal Administration of Agriculture, Environment and Rural areas, and the ZALF succeeded in quantifying the long-term carbon losses by wind erosion from a long-term monitoring site (BDF). The measured soil C-loss of 4.4 kg m^-2 within 20 years (1990 - 2009) couldn’t be attributed so far. By dynamical modelling of wind erosion events of the last 10 years (2000 - 2009) the C - loss in that period (2.4 kg m^-2) could be explained reasonable. The calculated mean annual C-loss of 240 g m^-2 lies at the maximum margin of C-losses from mineral soils. The results emphasize the importance to include processes of wind erosion in C-balances on susceptible soils, not only in steppe areas, but in temperate-humid climates as well.