What if we could do this with all the extra carbon dioxide in our atmosphere?

Just shove it underground.

Well, some people are actually already trying this, and we've poured millions of dollars research and time into this strategy known as soil sequestration.

The thinking goes that soil can lock carbon underground and help with the climate crisis, but much like how messes don't disappear when shoved into your closet soil.

Carbon may not stick around in the ways we had previously thought.

In fact, our entire understanding of how carbon dioxide stays in the soil may need some major reworking.

To be clear, we do know that carbon can stick around in the soil for centuries or even millennia.

If we want to store carbon in the soil, we first need to understand what that thin layer of material covering Earth is actually made of.

At its most basic, soil is made up of minerals, air, water and organic matter like leaves.

Organisms feast on this organic matter, breaking it down and releasing carbon dioxide or CO two into the air, with one major exception.

Humans first described in 1786.

This group of complex organic molecules has long been considered stable enough to resist decomposition from microbes, which instead of the other shorter molecules present in the soil, this meant that all the carbon stored inside of these humans particles sort of just stayed put.

Because of this, some scientists have been trying to harness the potential of humans as a carbon sink.

The Salk Institute's Harnessing Plants Initiative has received millions of dollars in funding to research methods of creating more humans.

But we still don't know how carbon cycles and soil, and there's very little that we actually understand about humans Like doesn't even exist.

In a groundbreaking study from 2015, the researchers argue that the available data collected on the soil doesn't actually provide any evidence for the formation of humus and soils, mostly because traditional soil extraction methods don't analyze the material as precisely as they should.

Traditionally, scientists study soil organic matter by adding a harsh alkaline treatment to the soil sample.

This treatment causes different components of the soil organic matter to react differently.

Some of it becomes more soluble in water where some of it isn't affected by the treatment at all.

To account for these differences, scientists concluded that there were different types of human substances in the soil.

Instead of trying to figure out how soil organic matter functions as a whole.

Basically, it created a lot of confusion.

But now scientists have a much more sophisticated way to study soil organic matter.

Put a little bit of soil in a magnetic field, beam it with timed radio frequency pulses and directly examine it.

Recent studies have found that humorous mostly contains components from plants and microbes, meaning that humans may be a snack from microorganisms to.

And if they're able to digest us, that means the carbon that we once thought was locked away is actually being released right back into the atmosphere.

So you can imagine how this changes our plans for having humans captured.

CO two underground.

But remember, carbon can stick around in the soil for a very long time.

So if humans isn't sequestering carbon, what is well, one idea is that minerals and clumps of soil particles or aggregates could be responsible.

They could present a challenge to microbes looking for a snack, essentially locking away carbon in the soil and preventing them from digesting it.

But we don't have enough studies about this interaction or how it's vulnerable to natural and human processes like freezing, thawing or cultivation.

Meanwhile, we've got to apply our new understanding of humans to climate crisis solutions, starting with our climate models.

Back when scientists started making models of the global climate, they simplified them by putting soil carbon into short term and long term pools.

Those classifications continued to be used for the next few decades.

So now a bunch of models like the one used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change overestimate how much carbon is sequestered underground and underestimate how much carbon comes out, which becomes a bigger problem when you factor in that warm soil releases way more Co two.

The reality is that we just don't have precise enough ways to figure out how soil carbon cycles, so it's really hard to write a perfect model.

But researchers could add certain elements to our models, like the fraction of carbon associated with minerals.

And since soil microbes are such huge drivers of carbon flow, maybe adding microbial, biomass or the microbial growth rate into the mix could be the move, even though it's a blow to learn that long term carbon storage and humans doesn't actually happen.

It is great to have this knowledge to better inform our decisions.

Science isn't perfect, but it's ever improving our understanding of the world.

Any other ground breaking news you'd like us to cover?

Pun definitely intended.

Let us know down in the comments and make sure to subscribe to seeker for all your soil.

Science news.

Thanks for watching.

And I'll see you next time.

Mm.