How much carbon do soils hold?
Featured Experts
Asmeret Asefaw Berhe
Director of the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy
Asmeret Asefaw Berhe
Director of the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy
Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe is the Director of the Office of Science for the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Berhe is currently on leave from the University of California, Merced where she holds the Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology; is a Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry; and served as Associate Dean for Graduate Education. Her research focus lies at the intersection of soil science, global change science, and political ecology with an emphasis on how the soil system regulates the earth’s climate and the dynamic two-way relationship between the natural environment and human communities.
She previously served as the Chair of the U.S. National Committee on Soil Science and member of the Board of International Scientific Organizations at the National Academies; Leadership board member for the Earth Science Women’s Network; and founding a co-principal investigator in the ADVANCEGeo Partnership – a National Science Foundation funded effort to empower scientists to respond to and prevent harassment, discrimination, bullying, and other exclusionary behaviors in research environments.
In this Episode
Soil holds 2x more carbon than vegetation and the atmosphere combined, according to Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry and Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced. She is digging beneath the surface with Climate Now to help us understand the complexities of the soil carbon cycle and how soil could help us fight climate change.
