Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential of Terrestrial Ecosystems: Trends And Soil Priming Effects

Abstract

Carbon sequestration in the terrestrial ecosystems by forest and agricultural management activities is being considered the best sustainable method to diminish the increasing concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This paper presents soil carbon sequestration potential of terrestrial ecosystem and the concept of soil priming effect. According to forest survey of India, the carbon stock of Indian forests increased at the rate of 0.3% as compared to the previous assessment, i.e., from 2017 to 2019. Indian forests soils are a reservoir of 7124.6 million tonnes of carbon and they still have high potential to store more carbon. As per soil carbon 4 mille concepts, India must intensify the process of afforestation, land restoration, and agricultural management practices to increase the soil carbon storage, i.e., up to 0.4%. However, organic manure amendments or a fresh supply of carbon substrates via. rhizodeposits into the rainfed or irrigated lands changes the microbial communities and may decompose the already stored soil carbon, i.e., positive priming effect. Thus, accurate measurement of soil organic carbon (SOC) content in various types of ecosystems like forest, agricultural land, desert, agroforest, and plantation is still crucial to ascertain how much they can help to reduce the increasing concentration of atmospheric CO2.

Optimal Straw Retention Strategies for Low-Carbon Rice Production: 5 Year Results of an In Situ Trial in Eastern China

“…Soil carbon loss is another considerable factor in soil carbon sequestration. Previous studies indicated that the priming effect of exogenous carbon inputs on soil organic carbon decomposition could affect soil carbon sequestration processes [52,53]. The effect of strawincorporation-induced priming is superior to that of biochar [53].…”

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“…The soil organic carbon (SOC) pool is one of the most important carbon pools in terrestrial ecosystems ( Ahirwal et al., 2022 ), accounting for more than 50% of the total soil carbon ( Dinakaran et al., 2022 ). Changes in soil organic carbon not only affect the nutrient supply of soils and vegetation and the carbon balance between soils and the atmosphere but also have a large impact on the Earth’s carbon cycle and global climate change ( Lan, 2021 ; Liu et al., 2021 ).…”