Soil Carbon Pool as an Environmental Indicator · Carbon Management and Sequestration Center Soil...

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Carbon Management and Sequestration Center

Soil Carbon Pool as an Environmental Indicator

Rattan Lal Carbon Management and Sequestration Center

The Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210 USA

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“Hello there folks. Do you know who or what I am? I am the geomembrane of the Earth. I am your protective filter, your buffer, your mediator of energy, water, and biogeochemical compounds. I am your sustainer of productive life, your ultimate sources of elements, and the habitat for most biota. I am the foundation that supports you, the cradle of your myths, and the dust from which you will return. I am a soil”.

Richard Arnold (2005) Senior Soil Scientist

SOIL: THE ESSENCE OF LIFE

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Soil is a 4-dimensional complex mixture of organic and mineral substances, with a hierarchy of pores containing dilute solution and gases at a wide range of energy potentials, comprising of diverse micro to macro organisms, and a medium for complex biochemical transformations which support plant growth and numerous ecosystem services.

Lal (2015)

SOIL

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"Dirt has no currency in western society, and has little impact on politicians. It comes under the journalist "MEGO" category… My Eyes Glaze Over. Bar a few impressive dust storms, we care little of our soil. We do not relate what we eat in our home, buy in out supermarkets, or drink from our Starbucks to the soil. And yet, without soil, we become thirsty, hungry, and we die. Without soil, we become Mars, with no water, no atmosphere, and only relics of life, with at best distant stargazers trying to figure out the life that could have been."

Young and Crawford (2015)

THE DIRT

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"So, before we examine what we need in terms of new seeds, new chemicals to add to the soil, and new technology platforms that need development, we need to urgently look at legal frameworks that protect our soil asset. So, our first challenge with any discipline, any agricultural framework, or any plant species, is to call on governments to implement legal strategies to secure and build our fertile soil reserves."

Young and Crawford (2015)

SCIENCE POLICY INTERPHASE

Especially so during the IYS-2015

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Mamani-Pati et al., 2014

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Physical Chemical

Biological

Interaction

•  The aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences

•  Surroundings •  Milieu •  Context •  The style of a place

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

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Latin verb “indicare” means to:

•  Disclose •  Point out •  Announce •  Estimate •  Put a prince on •  communicate

INDICATOR

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•  It is a sign, signal or a message about the surroundings. •  It is an acceptable and simple yard stick about any parameter as a

measure of the present state and of the future trends.

•  It is a proxy regarding state of the things, resources, activities, etc.

INDICATOR

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•  It is a measure, quantitative or qualitative, of changes occurring in the environment, including trends overtime

•  It is a quantifiable measure of the sate of the environment, and its impact on ecosystems.

ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATOR

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ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATOR

Ecosystem Economy

Human Well-being

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•  Relevant •  Simple •  Reliable •  Repeatable •  Accessible •  Quantifiable •  Credible •  Scalable: local to national and global

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD INDICATOR

•  User-driven •  Policy-relevant •  Highly aggregated

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•  Assess trends •  Compare scenarios •  Monitor progress •  Evaluate performance •  Provide early warning •  Assist in decision making •  Identify knowledge gaps •  Define researchable issues •  Establish criteria for resource allocation •  Measure impact

APPLICATION OF INDICATORS

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GROUPING OF INDICATORS

Types of Environmental Indicators

Sustainability Indicators

State of the Environment

Indicators

Environment Performance

Indicators

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Environment � Gaseous emissions � Sea level rise � Biodiversity � Water quality � Air quality � Soil quality

Human Well being � Average age � Education � Diet quality � Affluence � Status of women and minority

Sustainability � Per capita CO2 emission � Renewable vs. total energy consumed � Recycling of urban/ industrial/ ethnic/ gender equity � Resilience

Performance � Trend in emissions � Renewable resources vs. total resources � Intensity of use

INTERACTIVE INDICATORS

Types of Indicators

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SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS

Sustainability

Environment Ec

onom

y Social

Well-being

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HOLISTIC INDICATORS

Environment

Society

Performance Management

Technology

Economy

Sustainability

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•  Productivity •  Erosion, degradation •  Biodiversity •  Water quality •  Gaseous emission and air quality •  Pollutant denaturing •  Food and nutritional security •  Plant, animal and human health •  Ecosystem resilience •  Sustainability

SOIL CARBON AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATOR BECAUSE IT DETERMINES:

• Extractive Farming/Subsistence

• Depletion of SOC and Nutrients • Decline in Soil Structure

• Loss of Soil Resilience

• Decline in Ecosystem Functions and Services

• Loss of Soil biodiversity • Disruption of Key Processes

• Hunger • Malnutrition • Political Unrest • Civil Strife • War and insecurity

Severe Degradation

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Soil is an organic-carbon mediated realm in which solid, liquid, gas and biology all interact from a scale of nanometer to landscape.

THE LIVING SOIL

The weight of live organisms in arable land is 5 t/ha

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SOILS AND MEN (1938)

“SOM is one of our most important natural resources: its unwise exploitation has been devastating, and it must be given its proper place in any conservation policy as one of the major factors affecting crop production in the future.”

“A declining soil fertility, due to a lack of organic material, major elements, and trace minerals, is responsible for poor crops and in turn for poor people.”

“Health of our nation may be impossible to restore without first restoring the health of our soils.”

Albrecht, President SSSA (1938)

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AL-IKSEER (THE RECIPE)

“Soil organic matter has over the centuries been considered by many as an elixir of life. Ever since the dawn of history, some eight thousand and more years ago, man has appreciated the fact that dark soils, commonly found in river valleys and broad level plains, are usually productive soils. He also realized at a very early stage that color and productivity are commonly associated with organic matter derived chiefly from decaying plant materials”. ... Allison, 1973

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Crop Residues SOC Biochemical Transformations

+ (N, P, S etc.)

Elemental Ratio Cereal Residues SOC

Elemental Ratio Cereal Residues Humus C:N 100 12 C:P 200 50 C:S 500 70

C:N 100 12 C:P 200 50 C:S 500 70

Straw photo: http://shannahatfield.com/2013/09/24/hay-vs-straw/ Humus photo: http://www.davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=26820.3285

NUTRIENTS REQUIRED TO CONVERT BIOMASS INTO SOC

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TRADING NUTRIENTS FOR CARBON

Sequestration of 10,000 kg of biomass C as SOC requires additional nutrients:

•  833 kg N

•  200 kg P

•  143 kg S

These ingredients will produce + 17,241 kg of humus

28,000 kg of C in residues 62,000 kg of residues (oven dry)

Recalculated from Himes, 1998.

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MRT OF SOIL ORGANIC CARBON

•  MRT varies from a few seconds to a few millennia. •  It is only the SOC with a long MRT of decades to

millennia that can mitigate the climate. •  It is the environmental and biological controls, rather

than molecular structural properties (recalcitrance), which impact the MRT.

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MECHANISMS OF SOC PROTECTION

Protection Mechanism Component Chemical Silt + Clay Physical Micro-aggregates Biochemical Non-hydrolyzable C Unprotected POM in sand fraction

Six et al. (2002)

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WATERRESOURCES-Quality

-Quan+ty

- Aboveground-Belowground

BIODIVERSITY

- Mi+ga+on- Adapta+on- Stabiliza+on

CLIMATECHANGE

FOODSECURITY

-Quan+ty-Quality

SOILQUALITY(SOC)

THE ENGINE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

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Accelerated erosion

Innovative Technology II

Innovative Technology I Subsistence

farming, none or low off-farm input soil degradation

New equilibrium

Adoption of RMPs

Time (Yrs) Lal, 2004

80

100

20

40 60 80 100 120 140 160

40

60

20

Rel

ativ

e So

il C

Poo

l

0

Maximum Potential

Rate ΔY

ΔX

Attainable Potential

C Sink C

apacity

Δt

• Conservation Agriculture • Biochar • Agroforestry • Desert. Control •  Afforestation •  Pasture Mgmt • H2O harv., DSI • Farming Systems

MRT = Pool Flux

SOIL C SEQUESTRATION

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•  Animal Power •  Rotations

•  Sustainable intensification (SI)

•  Rhizospheric processes

•  Disease- suppressive soils

•  Soil-less agriculture

•  The nexus approach

•  Phytobiome management

•  Recarbon-

ization of the biosphere

•  Nutrition-sensitive agriculture

•  SI/ Restorative Agriculture

•  Soil-less agriculture

•  Phytobiome management

•  Urban

agriculture

•  Space farming

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS

•  Hand Tools GR

EEN

REV

OLU

TIO

N

� M

achi

ne p

ower

�

Ferti

lizer

s �

Ger

mpl

asm

YEAR

REL

ATIV

E FO

OD

PR

OD

UC

TIO

N (M

g/ha

)

WORLD POPULATION (BILLIONS)

12

8

6

4

1

0.8

15 20

1750 1850 1950 1975 2000 2025 2050 2015

0.8 1 3 4 6 8 9.6 7.6

� C

onse

rvat

ion

agric

ultu

re �

Mic

ro-ir

rigat

ion

�

Pre

cisi

on fa

rmin

g �

Per

enni

al c

ultu

re

� C

ompl

ex ro

tatio

ns �

GM

Os

�  Improved cultivars

�  Biotech- nology

�  No-till farming

�  INM

�  IPM

� Carbon sequestration

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N, P, K, Zn, H2O

TOWARDS C-NEUTRAL AGRICULTURE

Chatting with plants

through molecular-

based signals No-till Farming

INM

Soil biota and ecosystems services

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Resilience of Soil-Ecological Systems

It has multiple regimes (stable states) which are separated by thresholds

Thresholds

Critical Threshold

The current state of the system

Possible states in which the system can still have the same function Irreversible

Degradation

Resilience

Regime Shift

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THRESHOLD/CRITICAL LEVEL Threshold/Critical Level/Tipping Point: Soil processes and properties have threshold levels (~2.0% SOC concentration). Beyond threshold level, there is a drastic regime change.

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CRITICAL LEVEL OF SOC FOR WHEAT YIELD

4000

3000

2000

1000

0 0 20 80 60 40

Soil Organic C (Mg ha-1)

Yiel

d (k

g ha

-1)

(Diaz-Zorita et al., 2002)

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Crop Yield Increase (Kg/Ha/Mg C) Maize 100 - 300 Soybeans 20 - 50 Wheat 20 - 70 Rice 10 - 50 Sorghum 80 - 140 Millet 30 - 70 Beans 30 - 60

30-50 million tons/yr in developing countries

CROP YIELD INCREASE WITH INCREASE IN SOC BY 1 Mg C/Ha

(LAL, 2005)

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SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT

•  Replace what is removed, •  Respond wisely to what is changed, and •  Predict what will happen from anthropogenic and natural perturbations

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SOIL C AS AN INDICATOR OF ENVIRONMENT

1.  It is a familiar property,

2.  It involves direct measurement,

3.  It can be measured in 4 dimensions (length, width, depth, time),

4. It lends itself to repeated measurements over the same site,

There are numerous advantages:

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5. It is linked to ecosystem performance and services, 6. It is a key driver of soil formation, 7. It is important to soil fertility, 8. It has memory, 9. It has well defined properties,

SOIL C AS AN INDICATOR OF ENVIRONMENT (CONTINUED)

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10. It can be used in synergism with other indicators, 11. Its uncertainty can be quantified, 12. Its pathways across the landscape can be followed, 13. It is an important archive of paleo-environmental conditions.

SOIL C AS AN INDICATOR OF ENVIRONMENT (CONTINUED)

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SOILS AND MEN (1938)

“SOM is one of our most important natural resources: its unwise exploitation has been devastating, and it must be given its proper place in any conservation policy as one of the major factors affecting crop production in the future.”

“A declining soil fertility, due to a lack of organic material, major elements, and trace minerals, is responsible for poor crops and in turn for poor people.”

“Health of our nation may be impossible to restore without first restoring the health of our soils.”

Albrecht, President SSSA (1938)

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AL-IKSEER (THE RECIPE)

“Soil organic matter has over the centuries been considered by many as an elixir of life. Ever since the dawn of history, some eight thousand and more years ago, man has appreciated the fact that dark soils, commonly found in river valleys and broad level plains, are usually productive soils. He also realized at a very early stage that color and productivity are commonly associated with organic matter derived chiefly from decaying plant materials”. ... Allison, 1973

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GLOBAL SOIL ORGANIC CARBON POOL 0-30cm DEPTH

Total Pool = 684-724 (704) Pg .... Batjes (1996)

0.4% Increase/yr = 2.8 Pg C/yr

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GLOBAL POTENTIAL OF TERRESTRIAL C SEQUESTRATION (Lal, 2010)

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12.5 x 10-12 Pg C/ha/y

v

NPP

5 x

10-9

Pg

C/h

a pe

r yr

+ 2

ppm

CO

2/y

NBP≅3PgC/yr

THE NPP OF A CORN FIELD IS 400 TIMES THE ANNUAL INCREASE IN ATMOSPHERIC C POOL

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Land Fossil Fuel Ocean

THE TERRESTRIAL AND OCEANIC PROCESSES IMPACTING ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY

Atmosphere 800 Pg

(400 ppmv) + 4.3 Pg/yr (2.2 ppm/yr)

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Atmosphere Fossil Fuel Ocean

Terrestrial Biosphere

•  Soil •  Biota

POTENTIAL MITIGATION STRATEGIES INVOLVING THE TERRESTRIAL BIOSPHERE

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Biosphere •  Live Biomass •  Detritus

Material • Marine Biota • Green Roofs •  Afforestation

Pedosphere •  Land application of

biomass-C (mulch, compost, manure, biochar)

•  Erosion control •  Waste management •  Producing technosols •  Soil restoration

Anthroposphere Byproducts of

Biomass •  Houses, furniture,

timber •  Carbonization •  Landfills •  Artificial trees

Lithosphere • Geologic

sequestration (CCS)

•  Carbonation processes

• Weathering of alumino-silicates

Storing Biogenic Carbon

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TECHNICAL POTENTIAL OF CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN THE TERRESTRIAL

Activity

Technical Potential (Pg C/yr)

A. Soil •  Cropland management 0.4-1.2 •  Restoration of Salt-Affected Soils 0.3-0.7 •  Desertification Control 0.2-0.7

Sub-total 0.9-2.6

B. Vegetation •  Afforestation, Forest Succession,

Agroforestry, Peatland Restoration 1.2-1.4

•  Forest Plantations 0.2-0.5 •  Savanna and Grassland Ecosystems 0.3-0.5

Sub-total 1.7-2.4

Grand Total 2.6-5.0 (3.8)

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4 FOR 1000 : A NEW PROGRAM FOR CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN AGRICULTURE

With soil C pool of 2400 Pg, 4/1000

= 9.6 Pg C

= 4.5 ppm CO2 Drawdown

•  Reducing emissions in 2050 to half of 1990 levels in Europe implies offsetting a total if 20 Pg CO2 (5.5 Pg C)

•  Thus, 4 per 1000 initiative can be an important strategy to achieve this goal.

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1- Global Soil C Pool

2 - Food Security 2 - Food

Security

SOIL CARBON AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Lal (2012)

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en.wikipedia.org www.worldwildlife.org

www.seeturtles.org HANDOUT / Reuters

Water Carbon

Nitrogen Phosphorous

Sulfur

SOIL: THE GLOBAL ICON

Lal (2014)

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