Potential Effects of Climate Change on Soil Properties: A Review

Soils form through the multifarious interaction of a number of forces, including climate, relief, parent material, organisms, all acting over time. It takes thousands of years for a soil to form and most soils are still developing following changes in some of these soil forming factors, particularly climate and vegetation, over the past few decades. Climate is one of the most important factors affecting the formation of soil with important implications for their development, use and management perspective with reference to soil structure, stability, topsoil water holding capacity, nutrient availability and erosion. Further Indirect effects corresponds to changes in growth rates or water-use efficiencies, through sea-level rise, through climate-induced decrease or increase in vegetative cover or anthropogenic intervention. Assuming constant inputs of carbon to soils from vegetation, different estimate predict that expected changes in temperature, precipitation and evaporation will cause significant change in organic matter turnover and CO 2 dynamics. In conclusion, increased productivity would generally lead to greater inputs of carbon to soil, thus increasing organics.