Over the last two decades, the sequestration of carbon in soils has often been advocated as a solution to mitigate the steady increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, one of the most commonly mentioned causes of climate change. A large body of literature, as well as sustained efforts to attract funding for the research on soil organic matter, have focused on the soil carbon sequestration – climate change nexus. However, because CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas released by soils, and given the fact that the feasibility of large-scale carbon sequestration in soils remains controversial, this approach does not appear optimal to convince policy makers to invest in soils. In this perspective article, we argue that a far better strategy revolves around the effect of climate change on functions/services that soils render. In particular, since climatologists forecast less frequent but more intense rainfall events in the future, which may lead to food shortages, catastrophic flooding, and soil erosion if soils are not able to cope, a more suitable focus of the research would be to increase soil organic matter content so as to strengthen the water regulation function of soils. The different conceptual and methodological shifts that this new focus will require are discussed in detail.

中文翻译：

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土壤有机质研究与气候变化：仅恢复碳与恢复土壤功能

在过去的二十年中，人们经常提倡将土壤中的碳封存作为缓解大气中二氧化碳浓度稳定增加的解决方案，这是气候变化最常提到的原因之一。大量文献以及为土壤有机质研究吸引资金的持续努力都集中在土壤碳固存 - 气候变化关系上。然而，由于 CO2 不是土壤释放的唯一温室气体，而且鉴于在土壤中大规模固碳的可行性仍然存在争议，这种方法似乎不是说服政策制定者投资土壤的最佳方法。在这篇观点文章中，我们认为更好的策略是围绕气候变化对土壤功能/服务的影响。特别是，由于气候学家预测未来降雨会减少但强度更大，如果土壤无法应对，可能会导致食物短缺、灾难性洪水和水土流失，因此更合适的研究重点是增加土壤有机质含量从而增强土壤的水分调节功能。详细讨论了这一新重点将需要的不同概念和方法转变。