New idea could dig Earth out of trouble
15 Apr 2016 by Evoluted New Media
Another use has been found for farm soil – isolating carbon dioxide and reducing global warming.
Another use has been found for farm soil – isolating carbon dioxide and reducing global warming.
Soil around the world holds approximately 4,800 petagrams (a pentagram is one trillion kilograms) of carbon. This is six times the amount – 830 petagrams – held by the atmosphere. However, researchers from Cornell University believe it can hold even more, if the right techniques were used.
Dr Johannes Lehmann, from Cornell University and co-author of the study, said: “We can substantially reduce atmospheric carbon by using soil. We have the technology now to begin employing good soil practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Scientists believe a decrease in greenhouse emissions and prudent agricultural management could result in enhanced soil fertility and biodiversity. This is in addition to reducing erosion, water pollution and runoff. Avoiding the breakdown of native ecosystems and returning marginal land to either grassland or a perennial forest has been proposed to reduce global warming.
Dr Lehmann said: “Improving prediction models, finding 'big data' approaches to integrate land use, soil management and technology to engage land users are key parts to realizing greenhouse gas mitigation from climate-smart agricultural soils.”
For these changes to be implemented cultural, political and socio-economic contexts across different countries must be understood for worldwide change.
Lehmann said: “The mitigation potential of existing and future soil management practices could be as high as eight petagrams per year, but how much is achievable depends on the implementation strategies, and socio-economic and policy constraints.”
The study was published in Nature.
