Risk to rely on soil carbon sequestration to offset global ruminant emissions
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2023

Carbon sequestration in grasslands has been proposed as an important means to offset greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant systems. To understand the potential and limitations of this strategy, we need to acknowledge that soil carbon sequestration is a time-limited benefit, and there are intrinsic differences between short- and long-lived greenhouse gases. Here, our analysis shows that one tonne of carbon sequestrated can offset radiative forcing of a continuous emission of 0.99 kg methane or 0.1 kg nitrous oxide per year over 100 years. About 135 gigatonnes of carbon is required to offset the continuous methane and nitrous oxide emissions from ruminant sector worldwide, nearly twice the current global carbon stock in managed grasslands. For various regions, grassland carbon stocks would need to increase by approximately 25% − 2,000%, indicating that solely relying on carbon sequestration in grasslands to offset warming effect of emissions from current ruminant systems is not feasible.

Författare

Yue Wang

Wageningen University and Research

I. de Boer

Wageningen University and Research

Martin Persson

Chalmers, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Fysisk resursteori

Raimon Ripoll-Bosch

Wageningen University and Research

Christel Cederberg

Chalmers, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Fysisk resursteori

P. Gerber

Wageningen University and Research

The World Bank

Pete Smith

University of Aberdeen

Corina E. van Middelaar

Wageningen University and Research

Nature Communications

2041-1723 (ISSN) 20411723 (eISSN)

Vol. 14 1 7625

Ämneskategorier

Nationalekonomi

Miljövetenskap

Klimatforskning

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-43452-3

PubMed

37993450

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2023-12-08