Efficiency of additional organic inputs for carbon sequestration in agricultural soils modulated by the priming effect and physical accessibility

Carbon is crucial for life and exists in various reservoirs, such as plant tissues, soil organic matter, geology, and atmosphere. There is a direct relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere and rising temperatures. CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in ecosystems. Carbon sequestration (CS) – the process of capturing and storing atmospheric CO2 – and expanding C storage of soils are appealing climate change (CC) responses. Agricultural soils are one of the largest C reservoirs and have potential for extended CS. Thus, protecting this ecosystem service (ES) we obtain from soils is crucial for addressing CC. Soil protection legislation should incorporate the significance of CS. The key issues in the sphere of natural resources can only be addressed by utilizing natural sciences in legal arguments. Accordingly, this study begins with highlighting the importance of soils for CS from a natural science perspective. This study analyses soil protection laws in the UK by scrutinizing whether they eliminate pressures on agricultural soils in a way that protect CS. The findings of this study suggest that soil protection laws do not offer a satisfactory protection for CS. We conclude by discussing alternative approaches for protecting CS in an effective manner and reverse the current trends in ES protection.

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Effective carbon sequestration in Italian agricultural soils by in situ polymerization of soil organic matter under biomimetic photocatalysis

Land Degradation and Development ◽

10.1002/ldr.2877 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 485-494 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Alessandro Piccolo ◽

Riccardo Spaccini ◽

Vincenza Cozzolino ◽

Assunta Nuzzo ◽

Marios Drosos ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Soil Organic Matter ◽

In Situ Polymerization ◽

Agricultural Soils

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Carbon sequestration in agricultural soils as potential climate change mitigation strategy for Germany

10.5194/ismc2021-86 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Christian Dold ◽

Herbst Michael ◽

Weihermüller Lutz ◽

Vereecken Harry

Keyword(s):

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Organic Carbon ◽

Carbon Storage ◽

Agricultural Soils ◽

Mitigation Strategy ◽

Surface Model ◽

Climate Projections ◽

Preliminary Results ◽

Community Land Model ◽

The Impact

The limitation of global warming to +1.5&#176;C compared to preindustrial levels requires net-zero CO2 emissions globally by mid-century and substantial removal of CO2 thereafter. Carbon sequestration in agricultural soils has been proposed as a potential mitigation strategy. Aim of this study is to quantify current carbon storage and emission reduction potential in agricultural soils, and assess the impact of mitigation measures in a prognostic modeling approach. The land surface model Community Land Model 5.0 (CLM) is used to assess soil carbon changes in agricultural soils in Germany. The simulation domain was set up with an 8 x 8 km grid across Germany using recent land use and soil texture maps, and parameters for major field crops. The model was spun up for ~1500 years with a 30-year climate dataset. Preliminary results show that spinup-derived organic carbon density (OCD, 0-188 cm) was significantly related to Soil Grid v2 OCD (R2 = 0.82), but only weakly related to field-measured OCD (R2 = 0.21). The simulated OCD values in the upper 32 cm soil layer were lower in Northwestern Germany compared to Soil Grids. This is probably due to the intensive use of organic amendment application in the region, and CLM5 lacks a subroutine for simulating organic carbon application. In a next step, carbon storage for different climate projections (regional EUR11 RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios) and management systems from 2020 - 2100 will be investigated. We will present preliminary results and discuss improvements of CLM5 to better represent agricultural soils.

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