Abstract
Crop-based agriculture occupies 1.7 billion hectares, globally, with a soil C stock of about 170 Pg. Of the past anthropogenic CO2 additions to the atmosphere, about 50 Pg C came from the loss of soil organic matter (SOM) in cultivated soils. Improved management practices, however, can rebuild C stocks in agricultural soils and help mitigate CO2 emissions.
Increasing soil C stocks requires increasing C inputs and/or reducing soil heterotrophic respiration. Management options that contribute to reduced soil respiration include reduced tillage practices (especially no-till) and increased cropping intensity. Physical disturbance associated with intensive soil tillage increases the turnover of soil aggregates and accelerates the decomposition of aggregate-associated SOM. No-till increases aggregate stability and promotes the formation of recalcitrant SOM fractions within stabilized micro- and macroaggregate structures. Experiments using13 C natural abundance show up to a two-fold increase in mean residence time of SOM under no-till vs intensive tillage. Greater cropping intensity, i.e., by reducing the frequency of bare fallow in crop rotations and increasing the use of perennial vegetation, can increase water and nutrient use efficiency by plants, thereby increasing C inputs to soil and reducing organic matter decomposition rates.
Management and policies to sequester C in soils need to consider that: soils have a finite capacity to store C, gains in soil C can be reversed if proper management is not maintained, and fossil fuel inputs for different management practices need to be factored into a total agricultural CO2 balance.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adu JK & Oades JM (1978) Physical factors influencing decomposition of organic materials in soil aggregates. Soil Biol. Biochem. 10: 109–115
Andrén O (1987) Decomposition of shoot and root litter of barley, lucerne and meadow fescue under field conditions. Swed. J. Agric. Res. 17: 113–122
Angers DA, Samson N, & Légère (1993) Early changes in water-stable aggregation induced by rotation and tillage in a soil under barley production. Can. J. Soil Sci. 73: 51–59
Angers DA & Giroux M (1996) Recently deposited organic matter in soil water-stable aggregates. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 60: 1547–1551
Balesdent J, Mariotti A & Boisgontier D (1990) Effect of tillage on soil organic carbon mineralization estimated from 13C abundance in maizefields. J. Soil Sci. 41: 587–596
Beare MH, Hendrix PF & Coleman DC (1994) Water-stable aggregates and organic matter fractions in conventional-and no-tillage soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 58: 777–786
Bond JJ & Willis WO (1969) Soil water evaporation: surface residue rate and placement effects. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc. 33: 445–448
Bremer E, Janzen HH & Johnston AM (1994) Sensitivity of total, light fraction and mineralizable organic matter to management practices in a Lethbridge soil. Can. J. Soil Sci. 74: 131–138
Cambardella CA & Elliott ET (1993) Carbon and nitrogen distribution in aggregates from cultivated and native grassland soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 57: 1071–1076
Campbell CA & Zentner RP (1997) Crop production and soil organic matter in long-term crop rotations in the semi-arid northern Great Plains of Canada. In: Paul EA, Paustian K, Elliott ET & Cole CV (Eds) Soil Organic Matter in Temperate Agroecosystems: Long-Term Experiments in North America (pp 317–334). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, U.S.A.
Cole CV, Innis GS & Stewart JWB (1977) Simulation of phosphorus cycling in semiaridgrasslands. Ecology 58: 1–15
Cole CV, Flach K, Lee J, Sauerbeck D & Stewart B (1993) Agricultural sources and sinks of carbon. Water Air Soil Poll. 70: 111–122
Davidson EA & Ackerman IL (1993) Changes in soil carbon inventories following cultivation of previously untilled soils. Biogeochemistry 20: 161–164
Elliott ET & Coleman DC (1988) Let the soil work for us. Ecol. Bull. 39: 23–32
Eswaran H, Van Den Berg E & Reich PF (1993) Organic carbon in soils of the world. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 57: 192–194
Franzleubbers AJ & Arshad MA (1996) Water-stable aggregation and organic matter in four soils under conventional and zero tillage. Can. J. Soil Sci. 76: 387–393
Golchin A, Oades JM, Skjemstadt JO & Clarke P (1994a) Study of free and occluded particulate organic matter in soils by solid state 13C CP/MAS NMR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Aust. J. Soil. Res. 32: 285–309
Golchin A, Oades JM, Skjemstadt JO & Clarke P (1994b) Soil structure and carbon cycling. Aust. J. Soil Res. 32: 1043–1068
Golchin A, Oades JM, Skjemstadt JO & Clarke P (1995) Structural and dynamic properties of soil organic matter as reflected by 13C natural abundance, pyrolysis mass spectrometry and solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy in density fractions of an oxisol under forest and pasture. Aust. J. Soil Res. 33: 59–76
Haas HJ, Evans CE & Miles EF (1957) Nitrogen and carbon changes in Great Plains soils as influenced by cropping and soil treatments. Technical Bulletin No. 1164 USDA, State Agricultural Experiment Stations
Hassink J (1996) Preservation of plant residues in soils differing in unsaturated protective capacity. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 60: 487–491
Heal OW, Anderson JM & Swift MJ (1997) Plant litter quality and decomposition: an historical overview. In: Cadisch G & Giller KE (Eds) Driven by Nature - Plant Litter Quality and Decomposition (pp 3–30). CAB International, Wallingford
Horner GM, Oveson MM, Baker GO & Pawson WW (1960) Effect of cropping practices on yield, soil organic matter and erosion in the Pacific Northwest wheat region. Wash., Idaho and Oregon Agric. Exp. Sta. and ARS-USDA Coop. Bull. No. 1
Houghton RA & Skole DL (1990) Carbon. In: Turner BL, Clark WC, Kates RW, Richards JF, Mathews JT & Meyer WB (Eds) The Earth as Transformed by Human Action (pp 393–408). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Hunt HW, Trlica MJ, Redente EF, Moore JC, Detling JK, Kittel TGF, Walter DE, Fowler MC, Klein DA & Elliott ET (1991) Simulation model for the effects of climate change on temperate grassland ecosystems. Ecological Modelling 53: 205–246
Jansson P-E, Johnsson H & Alvenäs G (1990) Heat and water processes. In: Andrén O, Lindberg T, Paustian K & Rosswall T (Eds) Ecology of Arable Land: Organisms, Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling. Ecological Bulletins 40: 31–40, Copenhagen, Denmark
Janzen HH, Campbell CA, Izaurralde RC, Ellert BH, Juma N, McGill WB & Zentner RP (1998) Management effects on soil C storage in the Canadian prairies. Soil Tillage Research 47: 181–195
Jastrow JD (1996) Soil aggregate formation and the accrual of particulate and mineralassociated organic matter. Soil Biol. Biochem. 28: 656–676
Lal R (1989) Conservation tillage for sustainable agriculture: Tropic vs. temperate environments. Adv. Agron. 42: 84–191
Oades JM (1984) Soil organic matter and structural stability: mechanisms and implications for management. Plant Soil 76: 319–337
Paustian K, Andrén O, Clarholm M, Hansson A-C, Johansson G, Lagerlöf J, Lindberg T, Pettersson R & Sohlenius B (1990) Carbon and nitrogen budgets of four agroecosystems with annual and perennial crops, with and without N fertilization. J. Appl. Ecol. 27: 60–84
Paustian K, Robertson GP & Elliott ET (1995) Management impacts on carbon storage and gas fluxes (CO2,CH4) in mid-latitude cropland and grassland ecosystems. In: Lal R, Kimble J, Levine E & Stewart BA (Eds) Soil Management and Greenhouse Effect. Advances in Soil Science (pp 69–84). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, U.S.A.
Paustian K, Andrén O, Janzen H, Lal R, Smith P, Tian G, Tiessen H, van Noordwijk M & Woomer P (1997a) Agricultural soil as a C sink to offset CO2 emissions. Soil Use Manage. 13: 230–244
Paustian K, Collins HP & Paul EA (1997b) Management controls on soil carbon. In: Paul EA, Paustian K, Elliott ET & Cole CV (Eds) Soil Organic Matter in Temperate Agroecosystems: Long-term Experiments in North America (pp 15–49). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, U.S.A.
Paustian K, Cole CV, Sauerbeck D & Sampson, N. (1998) CO2 mitigation by agriculture: An overview. Climatic Change 40: 135–162
Peterson GA, Halvorson AD, Havlin JL, Jones OR, Lyon DJ & Tanaka DL (1998) Reduced tillage and increasing cropping intensity in the Great Plains conserves soil C. Soil Tillage Research 47: 207–218
Post WM, Peng T-H, Emanuel WR, King AW, Dale VH & DeAngelis DL (1990) The global carbon cycle. Am. Sci. 78: 310–326
Puget P, Chenu C & Balesdent J (1995) Total and young organic matter distributions in aggregates of silty cultivated soils. Eur. J. Soil Sci. 46: 449–459
Rasmussen PE & Collins HP (1991) Long-term impacts of tillage, fertilizer and crop residue on soil organic matter in temperate semi-arid regions. Adv. Agron. 45: 93–134
Rasmussen PE & Smiley RW (1997) Soil carbon and nitrogen change in long-term agricultural experiments at Pendleton, Oregon. In: Paul EA, Paustian K, Elliott ET & Cole CV (Eds) Soil Organic Matter in Temperate Agroecosystems: Long-term Experiments in North America (pp 353–360). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, U.S.A.
Rovira AD & Greacen EL (1957) The effect of aggregate disruption on the activity of microorganisms in the soil. Aust. J. Agr. Res. 8: 659–673
Ryan MC, Aravena R, & Gillham RW(1995) The use of 13C natural abundance to investigate the turnover of microbial biomass and active fractions of soil organic matter under two tillage treatments. In: Lal R, Kimble J, Levine E, & Stewart BA (Eds) Soils and Global Change (pp 351–360). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, U.S.A.
Six J, Elliott ET, Paustian K & Doran JW (1998) Aggregation and soil organic matter accumulation in cultivated and native grassland soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 62: 1367–1377
Six J, Elliott ET & Paustian K (1999) Aggregate and SOM dynamics under conventional and no-tillage systems. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. (in press)
Smika DE (1983) Soil water change as related to position of wheat straw mulch on the soil surface. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc. 47: 988–991
Swift MJ, Bohren L, Carter SE, Izac AM & Woomer PL (1994) Biological management of tropical soils: integrating process research and farm practice. In: Woomer PL & Swift MJ (Eds) The Biological Managment of Tropical Soil Fertility (pp 209–227), Wiley, Chichester, U.K.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Paustian, K., Six, J., Elliott, E. et al. Management options for reducing CO2 emissions from agricultural soils. Biogeochemistry 48, 147–163 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006271331703
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006271331703