https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z
Mitigation potential of soil carbon management overestimated by neglecting N 2O emissions - Emanuele Lugato <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z#auth-1>, - Adrian Leip <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z#auth-2> & - Arwyn Jones <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z#auth-3> - *Nature Climate Change*volume 8, pages219–223 (2018) - doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0087-z - Download Citation <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z.ris> - - Biogeochemistry <https://www.nature.com/subjects/biogeochemistry> - Climate sciences <https://www.nature.com/subjects/climate-sciences> Received:16 January 2017Accepted:22 January 2018Published online:26 February 2018 Abstract International initiatives such as the ‘4 per 1000’ are promoting enhanced carbon (C) sequestration in agricultural soils as a way to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions1 <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z#ref-CR1>. However, changes in soil organic C turnover feed back into the nitrogen (N) cycle2 <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z#ref-CR2>, meaning that variation in soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions may offset or enhance C sequestration actions3 <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z#ref-CR3>. Here we use a biogeochemistry model on approximately 8,000 soil sampling locations in the European Union4 <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0087-z#ref-CR4> to quantify the net CO2 equivalent (CO2e) fluxes associated with representative C-mitigating agricultural practices. Practices based on integrated crop residue retention and lower soil disturbance are found to not increase N2O emissions as long as C accumulation continues (until around 2040), thereafter leading to a moderate C sequestration offset mostly below 47% by 2100. The introduction of N-fixing cover crops allowed higher C accumulation over the initial 20 years, but this gain was progressively offset by higher N2O emissions over time. By 2060, around half of the sites became a net source of greenhouse gases. We conclude that significant CO2mitigation can be achieved in the initial 20–30 years of any C management scheme, but after that N inputs should be controlled through appropriate management. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
