New uses for old tools: Reviving Holdridge Life Zones in soil carbon persistence research

Hermann F Jungkunst; Thomas Horvath; Jan Goepel; Simone Ott; Melanie Brunn

doi:10.1002/jpln.202100008

New uses for old tools: Reviving Holdridge Life Zones in soil carbon persistence research

Hermann F Jungkunst, Thomas Horvath, Jan Goepel, Simone Ott, Melanie Brunn

College of Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

 Growing evidence suggests that climate classification facilitates the identification of zones that
 either agree or disagree with processes explaining soil organic carbon (SOC) persistence.
 Already forty years ago, Post et al. (1982) posited that the strict temperature and precipitationbased
 classification defining the Holdridge Life Zones (HLZ) provides a descriptive tool to guide
 our understanding of the heterogeneous distribution of global SOC stocks. Here we argue that
 this classification has the potential for describing SOC persistence by linking top-down and bottom-
 up approaches from different scales, which allows selection of individual regional relevancies
 necessary to manage and track the fate of our largest terrestrial carbon (C) reservoir.

Original language	American English
Journal	Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.202100008
State	Published - 2021

Keywords

carbon management
climate classification
global carbon distribution
soil organic carbon persistence

Disciplines

Soil Science
Natural Resources Management and Policy
Climate

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10.1002/jpln.202100008License: Unspecified

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Cite this

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title = "New uses for old tools: Reviving Holdridge Life Zones in soil carbon persistence research",

abstract = " Growing evidence suggests that climate classification facilitates the identification of zones that either agree or disagree with processes explaining soil organic carbon (SOC) persistence. Already forty years ago, Post et al. (1982) posited that the strict temperature and precipitationbased classification defining the Holdridge Life Zones (HLZ) provides a descriptive tool to guide our understanding of the heterogeneous distribution of global SOC stocks. Here we argue that this classification has the potential for describing SOC persistence by linking top-down and bottom- up approaches from different scales, which allows selection of individual regional relevancies necessary to manage and track the fate of our largest terrestrial carbon (C) reservoir.",

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AU - Jungkunst, Hermann F

AU - Horvath, Thomas

AU - Goepel, Jan

AU - Ott, Simone

AU - Brunn, Melanie

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

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AB - Growing evidence suggests that climate classification facilitates the identification of zones that either agree or disagree with processes explaining soil organic carbon (SOC) persistence. Already forty years ago, Post et al. (1982) posited that the strict temperature and precipitationbased classification defining the Holdridge Life Zones (HLZ) provides a descriptive tool to guide our understanding of the heterogeneous distribution of global SOC stocks. Here we argue that this classification has the potential for describing SOC persistence by linking top-down and bottom- up approaches from different scales, which allows selection of individual regional relevancies necessary to manage and track the fate of our largest terrestrial carbon (C) reservoir.

KW - carbon management

KW - climate classification

KW - global carbon distribution

KW - soil organic carbon persistence

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JF - Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

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