A new facet of soil organic matter

Apart from being a potential source or sink of atmospheric CO2, soil organic matter can catalyse ice formation. When soil particles are lofted to the atmosphere by wind erosion this property may cause clouds to precipitate. Land use and land use change often increase emissions of soil dust. In principle, this could have regional effects on precipitation pattern. However, several issues need to be addressed before the relevance of this land-atmosphere interaction can be judged.