Are We and Soil The Same? — A Modeling Perspective of Soil Carbon Accrual and Weight Gain

After all, we and Mother Nature come from the same life force.

Building soil carbon in a healthy way is similar to building muscles for a healthy body. (Image on the left came from Piqsels public domain, on the right came from Pxhere public domain)

Early on in my research endeavor, I really hate the fact that there are very few well-written “starter pack” that is concise and at the same time deep enough about a science subject. Scientific articles do contain good information but are very scattered i.e., you may find small pieces of information that are useful to you here and there. Long review papers are too cumbersome and frankly, too boring for a starter. So I often feel there is a vacant niche left hanging to be filled, to fill the gap of effective science communication.

So here I put together what appears as a rather strange idea to write about — what is common between us and soils, specifically soil carbon accrual and… weight gain? And what can we learn about mathematical modeling from there? I am confident this will be extremely insightful to anyone interested in our relationship with soils, and to better understand what’s all the fuss and buzz about “soil carbon sequestration” aka. capturing atmospheric C and locking it in the soil — something you have probably heard a lot on climate change-related news.