Researchers have disclosed that enhanced soil carbon storage can potentially play an important role in mitigating global climate change.
Compared with the role of forests in carbon sequestration, the practical implementation of soil carbon sequestration as a strategy to combat climate change has not yet been fully realized, according to their recent research paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability.
The researchers from the Nature Conservancy and the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences evaluated global carbon storage capacities by monitoring the carbon reduction potential in forests, wetlands, farmlands and grasslands.
They quantified the role of soil carbon in natural climate solutions and found that soil carbon represented 25 percent of the total mitigation potential of natural climate solutions, a critical pathway for the removal of atmospheric carbon.
Furthermore, the results showed that soil carbon comprised nine percent of the carbon dioxide reduction potential for forests, 72 percent for wetlands and 47 percent for agriculture and grasslands.
The researchers predicted that carefully controlling soil carbon will be pivotal to the success of land-based efforts to prevent carbon emissions and improve soil health. (Xinhua)
