Climate change and overgrazing could turn Northern Mongolia into carbon source.
The study looked at how climate change and grazing affect carbon storage in soil in Northern Mongolia. They used different methods to simulate climate change and found that warming increased soil respiration in forests but not in the steppe. Soil moisture had a bigger impact on CO2 release than temperature. Forests had more aboveground carbon than the steppe, but soil carbon was similar. Overgrazing and deforestation could lead to a loss of carbon.