Research published in Scientific Reports warn that soils will have limited potential to mitigate climate change impacts and can even become a net source of atmospheric carbon dioxide if current patterns of land use and land use change continue. The pace and nature of projected climatic change will reduce the ability of soils to store carbon, which reduces its ability to produce food and store water. The research was based on a French case study, which also forecast that a quarter of the carbon in French soil could be lost to the atmosphere within a century.