The soil-air nexus : an important aspect of global soil security
Abstract
The soil and atmosphere compartments are very connected through various types of processes that influence each other. Soils are the bases of ecosystems like forest, crops impacting the pollutant concentrations via the dry and wet deposition processes. Microorganisms in soils are responsible for reactions leading to nitrogen dioxide and ammonia emissions from soils. These two compounds lead to the formation of the most important PM pollution peaks in Europe. Quality of soils are largely impaired by the deposition of persistant organic pollutants, heavy metals but the air-soils flux is reversible and in some conditions pollutants can be desorbed from soils. Under particular climatic conditions, soils can be erodible and huge amount of natural dust can be blown over thousands of kilometres. Wind blown dust emissions is a good example of connections between air and soils, climate affects erodibility and in turn soil particles can affect air quality and climate change.