Response to Editor to the comment by Schipper & Smith to our paper entitled "Continuous soil carbon storage of old permanent pastures in Amazonia"
Résumé
First of all, we recall that the message conveyed in our paper is that Amazonian forest and old tropical pastures act as C sinks by accumulating recurrently (continuously) C in biomass and soil. We do not support the idea that deforestation increases soil C as suggested in the title of Schipper and Smith comment. In our study, pasture C sink was estimated by two independent methods: eddy covariance measurements (Eddy) and a 36-years chronosequence analyzing soil organic C stock to a depth of 100 cm (Chrono). Both methods provide evidence that pastures ≥24 years can restore all or part of C sink of Amazonian forest if sustainable management is applied. Realizing that old pastures accumulate C is crucial in the Amazonian context where pastures are currently replaced by intensive crops (e.g. soybean) inducing a possible loss of this C sink.