Unrecognized threat to global soil carbon by a widespread invasive species

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Environmental Science
• Climate Change Research

Background:

• Terrestrial soil stores a significant portion of Earth's carbon.
• Human activities, particularly land-use change, are known to increase soil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
• The global carbon footprint of invasive species remains largely unquantified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To model and predict the soil area disturbed by invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa).
• To estimate the resulting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from this soil disturbance.
• To highlight the need for further research into the ecological and climate impacts of invasive species.

Main Methods:

• Utilized models to estimate wild pig population density.
• Developed models to quantify soil damage caused by wild pig rooting behavior.
• Integrated these models to project CO2 emissions from disturbed soils.

Main Results:

• Wild pigs are predicted to disturb a median area of 36,214 km² in their non-native ranges annually.
• This disturbance results in median CO2 emissions of 4.9 million metric tonnes (MMT) per year.
• Emissions estimates carry significant uncertainty, with a 95% prediction interval ranging from 0.3 to 94 MMT CO2.

Conclusions:

• Invasive wild pigs contribute substantially to global carbon emissions through soil disturbance.
• Urgent research is needed to refine estimates of wild pig-induced soil damage and CO2 release.
• Mitigating invasive species impacts offers co-benefits for biodiversity, food security, and climate change mitigation.