"In many places we are blowing it," says Schimel. The productivity of the great plains is flushing down the Mississippi every year, because it's being eroded away. People take soil for granted."

On one research project he studies Arctic soil. According to Schimel, global warming could get a boost from the Arctic since it is expected to warm up sooner than the rest of the world-releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as frozen peat soils thaw and decompose.