Soils and climate change

There is an increasing number of papers published in the journal Soil and Tillage Research where the aim of the research on soil tillage and related processes has been directed more to the study on CO2 emissions triggering of the climate change than to soil science. The rise of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has been taken as the dominant factor causing the recent global warming and the reduction of CO2 emissions from soil has been formulated as an important procedure influencing positively the environment. The review based upon the knowledge of paleopedology and Pleistocene and Holocene glaciology shows that the hypothesis on the dominant role of the greenhouse gas CO2 upon the recent climate change characterized by the global warming is false. The studies on reduction of CO2 emissions from soil as acts contributing to the reduction of the global warming are then futile attempts. However, the role of land use change and of variation of tillage – no tillage practices upon soil organic carbon have to be deeply studied in order to restore the optimal humification processes in soils where the CO2 emissions form an important part of the research. Some of the most frequently used menaces on consequences of the recent global warming are critically discussed, too, in order to show the rational expectation of the environment change due to the global warming which is heading towards the Holocene average.

► I checked the hypothesis on dominant role of the greenhouse gas CO2 upon the recent global warming. ► Proxies from glaciers and paleosols document periods with higher temperature than our recent values while the CO2 concentration was below recent level. ► The hypothesis on the dominant role of greenhouse gas CO2 upon the recent global warming was established as false. ► The studies on reduction of CO2 emissions from soil contribute to our better understanding on restitution of humic substances in soils.