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Managing for soil carbon sequestration: Let’s get realistic
Author(s) -
Schlesinger William H.,
Amundson Ronald
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1111/gcb.14478
Subject(s) - environmental science , carbon sequestration , biochar , climate change , soil carbon , greenhouse gas , soil water , weathering , climate change mitigation , population , soil organic matter , earth science , environmental protection , natural resource economics , soil science , carbon dioxide , ecology , waste management , geology , engineering , demography , geomorphology , pyrolysis , sociology , economics , biology
Improved soil management is increasingly pursued to ensure food security for the world's rising global population, with the ancillary benefit of storing carbon in soils to lower the threat of climate change. While all increments to soil organic matter are laudable, we suggest caution in ascribing large, potential climate change mitigation to enhanced soil management. We find that the most promising techniques, including applications of biochar and enhanced silicate weathering, collectively are not likely to balance more than 5% of annual emissions of CO 2 from fossil fuel combustion.