Assessing The Effectiveness Of Soil Carbon Sequestration In North America
Abstract
Soil carbon sequestration has been shown to be an important part of a portfolio of carbon sequestration strategies in the U.S. and Canada, and one that can be implemented at relatively low costs. This analysis focuses on the estimate of carbon sequestration in soil as a result of a change from conventional plow tillage (CT) to no-till (NT) in North America and the resulting uptake of CO2 from 1981-2000. We use the terrestrial component of the Integrated Science Assessment Model (ISAM-2), which simulates carbon and nitrogen fluxes as well as the interactions between carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle within the terrestrial biosphere at a 0.5o x 0.5o spatial resolution. To estimate carbon sequestration in soils, following a change in cropland management from CT to NT, we implement empirically-based sequestration estimates, or CMR curves in the ISAM. The CMR curves are based on the mean annual change in soil carbon over the expected duration of active sequestration. These empirical relationships have been developed for changes from CT to NT for five different climate regions, which are consistent with those used in the IPCC guidelines for carbon accounting. To calculate sequestration rates in North America, we use the measured area under NT over the period 1981- 2000. Cropland management (CT to NT) is accompanied by changes in CO2 concentration, climate, land use and land cover, and nitrogen deposition. Since these changes affect carbon and nitrogen cycles, and the interaction between them, which could augment or lessen carbon sequestration, we take a holistic approach to study carbon sequestration by incorporating major environmental changes.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFM.B51A0305J
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling (0412;
- 0793;
- 1615;
- 4805