Carbon sinks and sequestration | TableDebates

Image: Brian Boucheron, Fairyland Mesclun Mixed, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

News: Major food companies join to address climate change and healthy soils by creating a new standard focused on regenerative agriculture

The Carbon Underground, Green America and various food industry partners are developing a new standard for regenerative agriculture. It is claimed that the standard will encourage farmers to restore soil and improve crop resilience and nutrient density.

Image: USDA, k9515-1, flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Mitigation potential of soil carbon management overestimated by neglecting N2O emissions

In this paper, researchers from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission investigate the extent to which variation in nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions may offset or enhance the mitigation effects of carbon sequestration in arable European soils. They employ a biogeochemical model with input data from ~8000 soil sampling locations to quantify CO2 and N2O flux associated with different agricultural practices aimed at carbon (C) mitigation.

Report: Climate change & food systems: Assessing impacts and opportunities

Image: Andrew, New Laund Breakfast, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems

This study, undertaken by researchers at Michigan State University and the Union of Concerned Scientists, compares the net greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of two different beef finishing systems in the Upper Midwest, of the United States: a feedlot system; and a grazing system based on adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing principles.

Briefing paper: Livestock solutions for climate change

The FAO has just published a briefing paper which proposes three ways to substantially reduce emissions from livestock production.

Image: Andiseño Estudio, volcano-eruption-calbuco-chile-8__880, Flickr, Public domain

How crushed volcanic rock in farm soil could help slow global warming and boost crops

Using volcanic rock dust as a fertiliser on farms could offset around one tenth of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to preliminary estimates.

Report: Soil carbon and land use in Scotland

Scotland’s soils contain over half of the UK’s soil carbon stock, making it important to know how to avoid soil carbon loss. The Scottish landscape is currently a net sink for carbon (mainly due to forestry). A recent report assesses current knowledge on soil carbon and land use in Scotland.

Negative emission technologies - What role in meeting Paris Agreement targets?

A report by the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council finds that negative emissions technologies (NETs) have ‘limited realistic potential’ and cannot be relied upon to remove carbon at the rate envisaged in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios for avoiding dangerous climate change.

Photo: Matthias Ripp, Agriculture, Flickr, CC by 2.0

Soil carbon debt of 12,000 years of human land use

This paper, by researchers from the US and the Netherlands, presents the findings of a model analysis that estimates how much soil organic carbon (SOC) has been lost, and from where, as a result of land use and land cover change (LU-LCC) associated with human agricultural activities.