Soil carbon dynamics: models and questions

Soil decomposition models are critical forunderstanding future climate, providing insight into a major natural source ofcarbon dioxide. Several recent models have been proposed which explicitlyrepresent microbial processes, as well as other key chemical and physicalprocesses affecting decomposition. While soil carbon models have historically beenfirst order linear ODE’s these new process-rich models have non-linearcomponents that changes the characteristics of the equations. While these new models are morerepresentative of our understanding of the soil processes, there are openquestions on the relative importance of the underlying processes and overallmodel sensitivity to various parameters.

In this talk I will discuss the history of soil carbonmodels, review the structure and promise of the new process-rich models, anddiscuss recent results exploring the sensitivity and relative importance ofseveral key underlying processes.