Abstract. It is unequivocal that human activities have increased emissions of greenhouse gases, that this is causing warming, and that these changes will be irreversible for centuries to millennia. Whilst previous studies have broadly examined the contribution of agriculture or land use change to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the contribution of soil itself remains unclear, with quantifying the contribution of soil in this regard being critical for developing and implementing appropriate management practices. In the present study, we used previously published datasets for carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane to determine soil-based emissions of greenhouse gases and their contribution to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. We show that our near-complete reliance on soil to produce the rapidly increasing quantities of food being demanded by humans has caused soil to release profound amounts of greenhouse gases that are threatening the future climate. Indeed, net anthropogenic emissions from soil alone account for 15 % of the entire global increase in climate warming (radiative forcing) caused by well-mixed greenhouse gases, with carbon dioxide being the most important gas emitted from soil (74 % of total soil-derived warming), followed by nitrous oxide (17 %) and methane (9 %). There is an urgent need to prevent further land use change (including for biofuel production) to limit the release of carbon dioxide that results from the loss of soil organic carbon, to develop strategies to increase nitrogen fertilizer efficiency in order to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, to decrease methane from rice paddies, and to ensure that the widespread thawing of permafrost is avoided. Innovative approaches are urgently required for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from soil if we are to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2.0 °C.

中文翻译：

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土壤是全球温室气体排放和气候变化的主要贡献者


摘要。毫无疑问，人类活动增加了温室气体排放，这导致了变暖，而且这些变化在几百年到几千年内都是不可逆转的。虽然以前的研究广泛考察了农业或土地用途变化对人为温室气体排放的贡献，但土壤本身的贡献仍不清楚，量化土壤在这方面的贡献对于制定和实施适当的管理实践至关重要。在本研究中，我们使用了以前发布的二氧化碳、一氧化二氮和甲烷数据集来确定基于土壤的温室气体排放及其对人为温室气体排放的贡献。我们表明，我们几乎完全依赖土壤来生产人类所需迅速增加的食物，这导致土壤释放了大量的温室气体，威胁着未来的气候。事实上，仅土壤的人为净排放就占全球由混合温室气体引起的气候变暖（辐射强迫）增长的 15%，其中二氧化碳是土壤排放的最重要的气体（占土壤变暖总量的 74%），其次是一氧化二氮 （17%） 和甲烷 （9%）。迫切需要防止进一步的土地用途变化（包括生物燃料生产），以限制土壤有机碳损失导致的二氧化碳释放，制定提高氮肥效率的战略，以减少一氧化二氮的排放，减少稻田中的甲烷，并确保避免永久冻土的广泛融化。 如果我们要将全球变暖限制在 1.5 或 2.0 °C，就迫切需要创新方法来减少土壤中的温室气体排放。