Agroforestry: a sustainable environmental practice for carbon sequestration under the climate change scenarios—a review

Abstract

Agroforestry is a sustainable land use system with a promising potential to sequester atmospheric carbon into soil. This system of land use distinguishes itself from the other systems, such as sole crop cultivation and afforestation on croplands only through its potential to sequester higher amounts of carbon (in the above- and belowground tree biomass) than the aforementioned two systems. According to Kyoto protocol, agroforestry is recognized as an afforestation activity that, in addition to sequestering carbon dioxide (CO) to soil, conserves biodiversity, protects cropland, works as a windbreak, and provides food and feed to human and livestock, pollen for honey bees, wood for fuel, and timber for shelters construction. Agroforestry is more attractive as a land use practice for the farming community worldwide instead of cropland and forestland management systems. This practice is a win-win situation for the farming community and for the environmental sustainability. This review presents agroforestry potential to counter the increasing concentration of atmospheric CO by sequestering it in above- and belowground biomass. The role of agroforestry in climate change mitigation worldwide might be recognized to its full potential by overcoming various financial, technical, and institutional barriers. Carbon sequestration in soil by various agricultural systems can be simulated by various models but literature lacks reports on validated models to quantify the agroforestry potential for carbon sequestration.

A Time-Series Analysis of Climate Variability in Urban and Agricultural Sites (Rome, Italy)

“…Policies for mitigation and adaptation to climate changes should improve sustainable strategies aimed at the most effective use of natural resources close to areas with high human pressure [37,42,46,[94][95][96]. Approaches based on long-term climate forecasts and integrated with local-scale analysis of spatial variability in climate trends provide meaningful information to scenario investigation for future stability of peri-urban natural and agricultural environments in the Mediterranean basin [31,[97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104]. Rome's expansion was assessed in the last years by focusing on the spatial demographic dynamics and the decline of the agricultural sector.…”

“…Rome's expansion was assessed in the last years by focusing on the spatial demographic dynamics and the decline of the agricultural sector. Implications of global/local warming on peri-urban agriculture should be further investigated with the final objective to inform municipalities' policies supporting a sustainable land management [47,96,[104][105][106][107][108][109].…”

Toll-Like Receptor 9 Promotes Survival in SERCA2a KO Heart Failure Mice

“…Cardiac sections were stained for fibrosis with picrosirius red (WT, n = 5; TLR9 KO, n = 5; SERCA2a KO, n = 22; and SERCA2a/TLR9 KO, n = 13) as previously described [16]. For optimal visualization of picrosirius red-positive tissue, haematoxylin staining was excluded.…”

Why Promote Improved Fallows as a Climate-Smart Agroforestry Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa?

“…Quandt et al [12] also found agroforestry was a key adaptation strategy to climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Further, the reports of Abbas et al [7], Coulibaly et al [8], and Hunde [9] all confirmed agroforestry improves the biological productivity of crops for household food and nutritional security. While the literature provides the necessary evidence to invest in agroforestry as a climate-smart option, they are rather generalized, making it unclear as to how specific agroforestry technologies or practices such as improved fallows achieve the mitigation, adaptation and productivity goals of CSA.…”

“…With woody perennials as integral components, improved fallows fall under the category of landscape-scale mitigation schemes under the REDD+ (Reduction Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) and AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry, and other land uses) concepts [5]. In the literature, a lot is discussed about how agroforestry as an umbrella term for land use systems integrating trees with crops and/or animals achieves the mitigation, adaptation and productivity goals of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) [7][8][9][10]. For instance, Kim et al [11] reported agroforestry mitigates 27 ± 14 t CO 2 equivalent ha −1 year −1 , which is significant to reducing global carbon emissions.…”