Potential for Carbon Sequestration in European Soils: Preliminary Estimates for Five Scenarios Using Results from Long-Term Experiments

Smith, P.; Powlson, D.; Glendining, M.; Smith, J.

doi:10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.004

Title: Potential for Carbon Sequestration in European Soils: Preliminary Estimates for Five Scenarios Using Results from Long-Term Experiments

Abstract

One of the main options for carbon mitigation identified by the IPCC is the sequestration of carbon in soils. In this paper we use statistical relationships derived from European long-term experiments to explore the potential for carbon sequestration in soils in the European Union. We examine five scenarios, namely (a) the amendment of arable soils with animal manure, (b) the amendment of arable soils with sewage sludge, (c) the incorporation of cereal straw into the soils in which it was grown, (d) the afforestation of surplus arable land through natural woodland regeneration, and (e) extensification of agriculture through ley-arable farming. Our calculations suggest only limited potential to increase soil carbon stocks over the next century by addition of animal manure, sewage sludge or straw (<15 Tg C y–1), but greater potential through extensification of agriculture (~40 Tg C y–1) or through the afforestation of surplus arable land (~50 Tg C y–1). We estimate that extensification could increase the total soil carbon stock of the European Union by 17%. Afforestation of 30% of present arable land would increase soil carbon stocks by about 8% over a century and would substitute up to 30 Tg C y–1 of fossil fuel carbon ifmore »« less

Authors:

Smith, P.; Powlson, D.; Glendining, M.; Smith, J.

University of Aberdeen, School of Biological Sciences

Publication Date:: Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 2003

Other Number(s):: doi:10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.004; cdiac:doi 10.3334/CDIAC/tcm.004

Research Org.:: Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE) (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: Terrestrial Initiative in Global Environmental Research (TIGR); U.K. Natural Environmental Research Council; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom

Collaborations:: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC)

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Keywords:: carbon sequestration; soil organic carbon; fertilization; afforestation; CARBON SEQUESTRATION-TERRESTRIAL; SOIL ORGANIC CARBON

OSTI Identifier:: 1389521

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.004

Citation Formats


                    Smith, P., Powlson, D., Glendining, M., and Smith, J. Potential for Carbon Sequestration in European Soils: Preliminary Estimates for Five Scenarios Using Results from Long-Term Experiments.  United States: N. p., 2003. 
        Web.  doi:10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.004.

Copy to clipboard


                    Smith, P., Powlson, D., Glendining, M., & Smith, J. Potential for Carbon Sequestration in European Soils: Preliminary Estimates for Five Scenarios Using Results from Long-Term Experiments.  United States.  doi:https://doi.org/10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.004

Copy to clipboard


                    Smith, P., Powlson, D., Glendining, M., and Smith, J. 2003.  
"Potential for Carbon Sequestration in European Soils: Preliminary Estimates for Five Scenarios Using Results from Long-Term Experiments".  United States.  doi:https://doi.org/10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.004.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1389521. Pub date:Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 2003

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1389521,

  title        = {Potential for Carbon Sequestration in European Soils: Preliminary Estimates for Five Scenarios Using Results from Long-Term Experiments},

  author       = {Smith, P. and Powlson, D. and Glendining, M. and Smith, J.},

  abstractNote = {One of the main options for carbon mitigation identified by the IPCC is the sequestration of carbon in soils. In this paper we use statistical relationships derived from European long-term experiments to explore the potential for carbon sequestration in soils in the European Union. We examine five scenarios, namely (a) the amendment of arable soils with animal manure, (b) the amendment of arable soils with sewage sludge, (c) the incorporation of cereal straw into the soils in which it was grown, (d) the afforestation of surplus arable land through natural woodland regeneration, and (e) extensification of agriculture through ley-arable farming. Our calculations suggest only limited potential to increase soil carbon stocks over the next century by addition of animal manure, sewage sludge or straw (<15 Tg C y–1), but greater potential through extensification of agriculture (~40 Tg C y–1) or through the afforestation of surplus arable land (~50 Tg C y–1). We estimate that extensification could increase the total soil carbon stock of the European Union by 17%. Afforestation of 30% of present arable land would increase soil carbon stocks by about 8% over a century and would substitute up to 30 Tg C y–1 of fossil fuel carbon if the wood were used as biofuel. However, even the afforestation scenario, with the greatest potential for carbon mitigation, can sequester only 0.8% of annual global anthropogenic CO2-carbon. Our figures suggest that, although efforts in temperate agriculture can contribute to global carbon mitigation, the potential is small compared to that available through reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions by halting tropical and sub-tropical deforestation or by reducing fossil fuel burning.For access to the data files, click this link to the CDIAC data transition website: http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/programs/CSEQ/terrestrial/PeteSmithetal97/petesmithetal97.html},

  doi          = {10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.004},

  journal      = {},

  number       = ,

  volume       = ,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 2003},

  month        = {Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 2003}

}

Copy to clipboard

Dataset:

View Dataset

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3334/CDIAC/TCM.004

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Works referencing / citing this record:

Setting priorities for land management to mitigate climate change
journal, March 2012

Böttcher, Hannes; Freibauer, Annette; Scholz, Yvonne
Carbon Balance and Management, Vol. 7, Issue 1
https://doi.org/10.1186/1750-0680-7-5

Similar records in DOE Data Explorer and OSTI.GOV collections:

Preliminary Estimates of the Potential for Carbon Mitigation in European Soils Through No-Till Farming

Dataset Smith, P. ; Powlson, D. ; Glendining, M. ; ...

in this paper we estimate the European potential for carbon mitigation of no-till farming using results from European tillage experiments. Our calculations suggest some potential in terms of (a) reduced agricultural fossil fuel emissions, and (b) increased soil carbon sequestration. We estimate that 100% conversion to no-till farming would be likely to sequester about 23 Tg C y–11 in the European Union or about 43 Tg C y–1 in the wider Europe (excluding the former Soviet Union). In addition, up to 3.2 Tg C y–1 could be saved in agricultural fossil fuel emissions. Compared to estimates of the potential formore »« less
Soil Carbon Sequestration and Land-Use Change: Processes and Potential

Dataset Post, W. M. ; Kwon, K. C.

When agricultural land is no longer used for cultivation and allowed to revert to natural vegetation or replanted to perennial vegetation, soil organic carbon can accumulate. This accumulation process essentially reverses some of the effects responsible for soil organic carbon losses from when the land was converted from perennial vegetation. We discuss the essential elements of what is known about soil organic matter dynamics that may result in enhanced soil carbon sequestration with changes in land-use and soil management. We review literature that reports changes in soil organic carbon after changes in land-use that favour carbon accumulation. This data summarymore »« less
Improving the Estimation of the Atmospheric Water Vapor Pressure Using Interpretable Long Short-Term Memory Networks: Dataset, Python code, and trained models

Dataset Gao, Bo ; Coon, Ethan ; Thornton, Peter ; ...

Atmospheric water vapor pressure is an essential meteorological control on land surface and hydrologic processes. It is not as frequently observed as other meteorologic conditions, but often inferred through the August–Roche–Magnus formula by simply assuming dew point and daily minimum temperatures are equivalent or by empirically correlating the two temperatures using an aridity correction. The performance of both methods varies considerably across different regions and during different time periods; obtaining consistently accurate estimates across space and time remains a great challenge. We applied an interpretable Long Short-Term Memory (iLSTM) network conditioned on static, location specific attributes to estimate daily vapormore »« less
Key Factors for Assessing Potential Groundwater Impacts Due to Leakage from Geologic Carbon Sequestration Reservoirs

Dataset Carroll, S A ; Keating, E ; Mansoor, K ; ...

NRAP TRS
Preliminary Study of Potential Utilization of Triassic Rift Basins for Long-Term Carbon Sequestration

Technical Report Gupta, Neeraj ; Brezinski, David ; Adams, Rebecca

This report discusses and describes research carried out by the Maryland Geological Survey (MGS) with the objective of exploring the potential suitability of Triassic rift basins as locations for the permanent storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Similar Records
Related Works
journal (1)

Title: Potential for Carbon Sequestration in European Soils: Preliminary Estimates for Five Scenarios Using Results from Long-Term Experiments

Abstract

Citation Formats

Setting priorities for land management to mitigate climate change journal, March 2012

Setting priorities for land management to mitigate climate change
journal, March 2012