Converting highly productive arable cropland in Europe to grassland: -a poor candidate for carbon sequestration.

ABSTRACT: Sequestration of atmospheric CO₂ as organic carbon by agricultural soils (SOC) is promoted as a climate change mitigation option. IPCC provides guidelines for determining carbon stocks and sequestration potential, incentivising policy changes towards management of farmland for carbon sequestration. However, the basis of the assumption that agricultural soils can sequester significant atmospheric CO₂ has been questioned. We sought to determine the potential for conversion of arable cropland to grassland to sequester carbon in the short to medium term and potential limiting factors. There were no differences in SOC stocks in the top 30 cm between grassland up to 17 years old and arable cropland at 14 sites across the UK. However, SOC showed different distribution patter

SUBMITTER: Gosling P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5585225 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature