The DOI matches its Crossref record; 35 of the 35 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Total carbon and nitrogen in the soils of the world
Abstract
Summary The soil is important in sequestering atmospheric CO 2 and in emitting trace gases (e.g. CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O) that are radiatively active and enhance the ‘greenhouse’ effect. Land use changes and predicted global warming, through their effects on net primary productivity, the plant community and soil conditions, may have important effects on the size of the organic matter pool in the soil and directly affect the atmospheric concentration of these trace gases. A discrepancy of approximately 350 × 10 15 g (or Pg) of C in two recent estimates of soil carbon reserves worldwide is evaluated using the geo‐referenced database developed for the World Inventory of Soil Emission Potentials (WISE) project. This database holds 4353 soil profiles distributed globally which are considered to represent the soil units shown on a 1 / 2 ° latitude by 1 / 2 ° longitude version of the corrected and digitized 1:5 M FAO–UNESCO Soil Map of the World. Total soil carbon pools for the entire land area of the world, excluding carbon held in the litter layer and charcoal, amounts to 2157–2293 Pg of C in the upper 100 cm. Soil organic carbon is estimated to be 684–724 Pg of C in the upper 30 cm, 1462–1548 Pg of C in the upper 100 cm, and 2376–2456 Pg of C in the upper 200 cm. Although deforestation, changes in land use and predicted climate change can alter the amount of organic carbon held in the superficial soil layers rapidly, this is less so for the soil carbonate carbon. An estimated 695–748 Pg of carbonate‐C is held in the upper 100 cm of the world's soils. Mean C: N ratios of soil organic matter range from 9.9 for arid Yermosols to 25.8 for Histosols. Global amounts of soil nitrogen are estimated to be 133–140 Pg of N for the upper 100 cm. Possible changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen dynamics caused by increased concentrations of atmospheric CO 2 and the predicted associated rise in temperature are discussed.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The global soil has been estimated to hold the largest terrestrial organic carbon pool (~1,500 Pg C to a depth of 1 m; 2,400 Pg C to 2 m depth) (Batjes, 1996).”
From A review on biochar modulated soil condition improvements and nutrient dynamics concerning crop yields: Pathways to climate change mitigation and global food security (2019) · cites this paper as Batjes, 1996
In the citing paper
“hence, C stocks can be increased by increasing organic matter inputs or by reducing decomposition rates (e.g., by reducing soil disturbance), or both, leading to net removal of C from the atmosphere 11”
From Climate-smart soils (2016) · cites this paper as [11]
Citations
Cites
Soil taxonomy—a basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys
Nachtergaele, F. (2001) · Geoderma · doi:10.1016/s0016-7061(00)00097-5 · Cited by 5,448
Soil carbon pools and world life zones
Post, W., Emanuel, W., Zinke, P., & Stangenberger, A. (1982) · Nature · doi:10.1038/298156a0 · Cited by 2,332
Climate change 1992 : the supplementary report to the IPCC scientific assessment
Houghton, J. T., Callander, B. A., & Varney, S. (1992) · Cited by 1,990
Terrestrial ecosystems and the carbon cycle
SCHIMEL, D. S. (1995) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.1995.tb00008.x · Cited by 1,567
Organic Carbon in Soils of the World
Eswaran, H., van den Berg, E., & Reich, P. F. (1993) · Soil Science Society of America Journal · doi:10.2136/sssaj1993.03615995005700010034x · Cited by 1,449
Litter decomposition, climate and liter quality
Coûteaux, M., Bottner, P., & Berg, B. (1995) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(00)88978-8 · Cited by 1,132
Carbon Balance in Terrestrial Detritus
Schlesinger, W. H. (1977) · Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics · doi:10.1146/annurev.es.08.110177.000411 · Cited by 1,009
Soils and the greenhouse effect
Stanhill, G. (1991) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/0167-8809(91)90026-t · Cited by 907
Changes in Land Use and Land Cover: A Global Perspective.
Newman, J. A., Meyer, W. B., & Turner, B. L. (1995) · Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club · doi:10.2307/2996094 · Cited by 621
Carbon storage by introduced deep-rooted grasses in the South American savannas
Fisher, M. J., Rao, I. M., Ayarza, M. A., Lascano, C. E., Sanz, J. I., Thomas, R. J., & Vera, R. R. (1994) · Nature · doi:10.1038/371236a0 · Cited by 604
Research works printed but not linked: 22
- Arnold R.W., 1990, Global Soil Change
- Batjes N.H., 1992, A Review of Soil Factors and Processes that Control Fluxes of Heat, Moisture and Greenhouse Gases, 97
- Bouma J., 1987, Quantified Land Evaluation, 106
- Buringh P., 1984, The Role of Terrestrial Vegetation in the Global Carbon Cycle. Measurements by Remote Sensing, 91
- Davidson E.A., 1994, Soil Response to Climate Change, 156
- FAO, 1989, FAO‐ISRIC Soil Database (SDB)
- FAO, 1991, The Digitized Soil Map of the World
- FAO‐ISRIC, 1990, Guidelines for Soil Description
- FAO‐UNESCO, 1974, Soil Map of the World (1 : 5000 000), Vol. 1: Legend
- FAO‐UNESCO, 1971, Soil Map of the World (1 : 5000 000)
- IPCC, 1990, Climate Change
- Mizota C., 1989, Clay Mineralogy and Chemistry of Soils Formed under Volcanic Material in Diverse Climatic Regions
- Overdieck D., 1990, The Greenhouse Effect and Primary Productivity in European Agro‐Ecosystems, 31
- Sjörs H., 1980, Peat on Earth: multiple use of conservation, Ambio, 9, 303
- Sombroek W.G., 1990, Soils and the Greenhouse Effect, 225
- Sombroek W.G., 1993, Amounts, dynamics and sequestrations of carbon in tropical and subtropical soils, Ambio, 22, 417
- Tarnocai C., 1994, Amount of organic carbon in Canadian soils, Transactions of the 15th World Congress of Soil Science, 6, 67
- USDA, 1984, Methods and Procedures for Collecting Soil Samples and Methods of Analysis for Soil Survey
- USDA, 1993, Soil Survey Manual
- Breemen N., 1990, Soils and the Greenhouse Effect, 195
- Van deVen T.&Tempel P.1994.ISIS 4.0–ISRIC Soil Information System: User Manual. Technical Paper 15. Revised Edition. International Soil Reference and Information Centre Wageningen.
- Vogel A.W.1994.Compatibility of soil analytical data: determinations of cation exchange capacity organic carbon soil reaction bulk density and volume percent of water at selected pF values by different methods. Working Paper and Preprint 94/07 ISRIC Wageningen.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 1,001–1,004 of 1,004
Cattaneo, F., Barbanti, L., Gioacchini, P., Ciavatta, C., & Marzadori, C. (2014) · Biology and Fertility of Soils · doi:10.1007/s00374-014-0931-x · Cited by 40
Wilson, B. R., & Lonergan, V. E. (2013) · Soil Research · doi:10.1071/sr12376 · Cited by 36
Padró, R., Tello, E., Marco, I., Olarieta, J. R., Grasa, M. M., & Font, C. (2020) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124043 · Cited by 30
Matos, E. S., Freese, D., Böhm, C., Quinkenstein, A., & Hüttl, R. F. (2012) · Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis · doi:10.1080/00103624.2012.648354 · Cited by 30
Metadata
- Authors
- BATJES, N. H.
- Affiliations
- ISRIC - World Soil Information (NL)
- Corresponding author
- BATJES, N.H.
- ORCID
- BATJES, N.H.
- Venue
- European Journal of Soil Science
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1996-06
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 151-163
- ISSN
- 1351-0754 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2389
- OpenAlex
- W4231864045
- Cited by
- 3,213
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 134 · 2025: 191 · 2024: 209 · 2023: 186 · 2022: 197 · 2021: 190 · 2020: 181 · 2019: 172 · 2018: 196 · 2017: 182 · 2016: 167 · 2015: 133 · 2014: 149 · 2013: 140 · 2012: 123
- FWCI
- 10.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Soil Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Geostatistics and Mapping
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil and Environmental Studies
- Keywords
- soil nitrogen, soil organic carbon, soil C:N ratio, soil organic matter, greenhouse gas emissions, atmospheric CO2 sequestration, land use change, climate change, soil profile
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
