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Soil Sequestration

What is it?

What is it?

Picture Credit: Maixner, Brasher

  • Soil sequestration is when plants “sequester” (store) carbon dioxide in the soil (Lutz, Welsh)
  • Stays for various lengths of time depending on soil composition and other factors before being released back into atmosphere after being broken down by microbes. (Lutz, Welsh)

Why is this important?

Why it's Important

  • “It is estimated that the past 12,000 years…. agriculture ha[s] released 133 billion metric tons of CO2 (GtCO2) from the soil into the atmosphere.” (Lutz Welsh)
  • Plants store a lot of carbon underground and reducing how much of it we release back into the air can make a big difference
  • Carbon rich soil is also better for crop yield and agriculture overall (Melillo, Gribkoff)

Picture and caption credit: Maixner, Brasher)

How can we improve?

"The global greenhouse gas removal potential of various soil-based natural climate solutions (CO2e in billions of tonnes per year). Data source: Bossio et al. (2020). Chart by Carbon Brief using Highcharts." (Picture and caption credit: Dunne)

What can we do?

  • Plant more perennial crops (Melillo, Gribkoff)
  • They are year round crops so they grow deeper roots which in turn means more carbon storage
  • Limit tillage
  • Tilling is the turning up of the ground to prepare for planting, but it releases the carbon that was stored there
  • Less tillage improves farm resilience to floods and droughsts (american.edu)
  • Improved overall soil health as well
  • Plant more cover crops
  • planting after harvest increases amount of carbon that can be stored every year

Difficulties

  • Most farmers have small plots of land and to really have an affect on environment we need to have most farmers change methods (Melillo, Gribkoff)
  • Hard to do because would need ot convince farmers to change their practices that have worked for thousands of years
  • Global warming is speeding up plant decay which in turn shortens how long carbon is stored in ground (Melillo, Gribkoff)
  • Already seeing with permafrost melting in Arctic (Melillo, Gribkoff)

Picture of Arctic permafrost in Norway. Picture Credit: Ahmad

Difficulties of Getting it Going

What is being/could be done

Current

  • Financial incentives to not till and plant specific cover crops every year (american.edu)
  • Growing Climate Solutions Act
  • Bipartisan and intended to make it easier for farmers and ranchers to help with carbon markets. (Lutz, Welsh)
  • Conservation Reserve Program
  • Being expanded with new incentives and higher payment rates (Lutz, Welsh)
  • Aims to increase carbon sequestration

Ethical Terms/ Class Connection

Ethical Application

Definition: the rightness or wrongness of an action based on duty

Deontology

o Society needs farmers to provide food

o Release of extra carbon (outside of natural release) is not necessary or good, especially if it can be avoided

Definition: use of something (in this case land) at a rate within its capability to renew

Ecology/Ecologically Sustainable Use

o We are able to reuse the same land for farming every year.

o Soil quality has gotten worse because we have released so much carbon that it doesn't have enough time to replenish itself.

Definition: a Steadfast relationship and connection between land and people

Land Ethic

o We are in a cycle of giving and taking with the soil because we till and release its carbon, but then give some back by planting every year

We talked a lot about industrial farming and how much carbon agriculture releases. This could be a great way to improve how farming works with long term benefits.

In our book, it talks about relationships with land and this is a big one. I didn't realize just how much damage continual tilling can do to the soil and how important carbon is for soil health and quality

Class Connection

Sources

  • https://www.csis.org/analysis/soil-carbon-sequestration-myths-realities-and-biden-administrations-proposals
  • https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/soil-based-carbon-sequestration
  • https://www.american.edu/sis/centers/carbon-removal/fact-sheet-soil-carbon-sequestration.cfm#:~:text=What%20is%20Soil%20Carbon%20Sequestration,absorb%20and%20hold%20more%20carbon.
  • https://www.carbonbrief.org/restoring-soils-could-remove-up-to-5-5bn-tonnes-of-greenhouse-gases-every-year/
  • https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/11165-melting-arctic-permafrost-could-supercharge-global-warming/
  • https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/14880-carbon-markets-lure-farmers-but-are-benefits-enough-to-hook-them
  • Background Picture: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Farmer_and_tractor_tilling_soil.jpg
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