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Articles on Soil carbon

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William Edge, Shutterstock

Here’s how to fix Australia’s approach to soil carbon credits so they really count towards our climate goals

Aaron Simmons, University of New England; Annette Cowie, University of New England; Beverley Henry, Queensland University of Technology; Brian Wilson, University of New England; David Pannell, The University of Western Australia; David Rowlings, Queensland University of Technology; Elaine Mitchell, Queensland University of Technology; Matthew Tom Harrison, University of Tasmania; Peter Grace, Queensland University of Technology; Raphael Viscarra Rossel, Curtin University; Richard Eckard, The University of Melbourne, and Warwick Badgery, The University of Melbourne

A group of agricultural and soil scientists has serious concerns about the way credits are awarded for soil carbon sequestration in Australia.
Woodland caribou of the Pipmuacan herd. The effects of predation and habitat loss have greatly contributed to the decline of caribou in southern Nitassinan. (Stéphane Bourassa, Canadian Forest Service)

A hundred years of logging threatens the Innu link to their land

Louis De Grandpré, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM); David Gervais; Éric Kanapé, and Marie-Hélène Rousseau

A realistic look at forest management on the Nitassinan of Pessamit, based on data from the Québec government’s forest inventories.
An old-growth tree that was cut in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Biden administration has called for protecting mature US forests to slow climate change, but it’s still allowing them to be logged

Beverly Law, Oregon State University and William Moomaw, Tufts University

Protecting old and mature trees is the simplest and least expensive way to pull carbon out of the atmosphere – but proposed logging projects threaten mature stands across the US.
Lake Couridjah, Thirlmere Lakes National Park in New South Wales. Shutterstock

We helped fill a major climate change knowledge gap, thanks to 130,000-year-old sediment in Sydney lakes

Alexander Francke, University of Adelaide; Anthony Dosseto, University of Wollongong; Haidee Cadd, University of Wollongong, and Tim Cohen, University of Wollongong

80% of carbon on land in stored in soil. Our new research investigated how erosion transports this carbon to the bottom of lakes, where it’ll never be released into the atmosphere.
These insects are basically little machines that convert carbon-rich leaves into nitrogen-rich poo. (John Gunn)

Very hungry caterpillars can have large effects on lake quality and carbon emissions

John Gunn, Laurentian University; Andrew J Tanentzap, University of Cambridge, and Samuel Woodman, University of Cambridge

As environmental engineers, invasive caterpillars can have remarkable effects on water quality and soil conditions. But from a climate perspective they’re pretty much a nuisance.
Companies’ net-zero pledges count on vast expanses of forest to hold carbon so they can continue emitting. AFP via Getty Images

Forests can’t handle all the net-zero emissions plans – companies and countries expect nature to offset too much carbon

Doreen Stabinsky, College of the Atlantic and Kate Dooley, The University of Melbourne

Yes, trees and soils can absorb and store carbon, but the carbon doesn’t stay stored forever. That’s one of the problems with how net-zero plans for the climate are being designed.
A farmer walks through a rice paddy in India’s northeastern state of Assam. Buu Boro /AFP via Getty Images

Food production generates more than a third of manmade greenhouse gas emissions – a new framework tells us how much comes from crops, countries and regions

Xiaoming Xu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Atul Jain, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A new study provides a detailed way to calculate the climate impact of food production, which could lead to more sustainable farming policies and methods.
Organic vegetables at the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, Goleta, Calif. Citizen of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Organic food has become mainstream but still has room to grow

Kathleen Merrigan, Arizona State University

Four out of five Americans regularly buy some kind of organic food. An expert on the industry says more federal support could greatly expand organic farming and its environmental benefits.
Pixabay

‘One of the most damaging invasive species on Earth’: wild pigs release the same emissions as 1 million cars each year

Christopher J. O'Bryan, The University of Queensland; Eve McDonald-Madden, The University of Queensland; Jim Hone, University of Canberra; Matthew H. Holden, The University of Queensland, and Nicholas R Patton, University of Canterbury

Wild pigs are on every continent, except Antarctica. All up, they likely turn over the the same amount of soil as the area of Taiwan.
Soybeans sprout on an Illinois farm through corn stubble left on an unplowed field from the previous season – an example of no-till farming. Paige Buck, USDA/Flickr

To make agriculture more climate-friendly, carbon farming needs clear rules

Laura van der Pol, Colorado State University; Dale Manning, Colorado State University; Francesca Cotrufo, Colorado State University, and Megan Machmuller, Colorado State University

Policymakers want to pay farmers for storing carbon in soil, but there are no uniform rules yet for measuring, reporting or verifying the results. Four scholars offer some ground rules.
Shutterstock

US scheme used by Australian farmers reveals the dangers of trading soil carbon to tackle climate change

Aaron Simmons, University of New England; Annette Cowie, University of New England; Brian Wilson, University of New England; Mark Farrell, CSIRO; Matthew Tom Harrison, University of Tasmania; Peter Grace, Queensland University of Technology; Richard Eckard, The University of Melbourne; Vanessa Wong, Monash University, and Warwick Badgery, The University of Melbourne

If problems in such schemes are not addressed, the credibility of soil carbon trading will be undermined. Ultimately the climate - and the planet - will be the loser.

Related Topics

  1. Agriculture
  2. Carbon sequestration
  3. Climate change
  4. Emissions Reduction Fund
  5. Farming
  6. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)
  7. Livestock
  8. Soil
  9. Soil health
  10. Wetlands

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