Carbon farming in the Living Soils of the Americas

Abstract

Soil represents Earth's largest terrestrial reservoir of carbon (C) and is an important sink of C from the atmosphere. It remains unclear to which extent the inclusion of best management practices (BMPs) can contribute to increasing soil C sequestration in large-scale agrosystems. Solving the lack of soil C references can also allow the implementation of the C market, envisioned by the Paris Agreement. This study brings an overview of thousands of research articles and reveals that upscaling BMPs over 30% of the agricultural area (334 Mha) of the Americas would promote a soil C sequestration of 13.3 (± 7.30) Pg CO2eq in 20 years, offsetting ~ 39% of agricultural emissions in the same period. These results suggest that BMPs have great potential for C removal from the atmosphere and represent a positive impact in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation, combatting land degradation, and promoting food security.