The six rights of how and when to test for soil C saturation

Abstract

The concept of soil organic carbon (SOC) saturation emerged a bit more than 2 decades ago as our mechanistic understanding of SOC stabilization increased. Recently, the further testing of the concept across a wide range of soil types and environments has led some people to challenge the fundamentals of soil C saturation. Here, we argue that, to test this concept, one should pay attention to six fundamental principles or “rights” (R's): the right measures, the right units, the right dispersive energy and application, the right soil type, the right clay type, and the right saturation level. Once we take care of those six rights across studies, we find a maximum of C stabilized by minerals and estimate based on current data available that this maximum stabilization is around 82 ± 4 g C kg−1 silt + clay for 2 : 1-clay-dominated soils while most likely being only around 46 ± 4 g C kg−1 silt + clay for 1 : 1-clay-dominated soils. These estimates can be further improved using more data, especially for different clay types across varying environmental conditions. However, the bigger challenge is a matter of which C sequestration strategies to implement and how to implement them in order to effectively reach this 82/46 g C kg−1 silt + clay in soils across the globe.