TY - JOUR
T1 - Managing semi-arid woodlands for carbon storage
T2 - Grazing and shrub effects on above- and belowground carbon
AU - Daryanto, Stefani
AU - Eldridge, David J.
AU - Throop, Heather L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The exclosures were originally established by David Robson under funding from the NSW Government's Environmental Trust Fund . We are grateful to the owners and managers of Wapweelah for allowing us access to their property and for maintaining the exclosures. We thank Erin Roger for assistance with field sampling and Terry Koen for his knowledge of statistic analyses. This study was supported by a PhD scholarship from AusAID. Heather Throop's participation was supported by a US National Science Foundation grant ( DEB-0953864 ).
Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/4/1
Y1 - 2013/4/1
N2 - Shrub cover has increased in semi-arid regions worldwide. This change has generally been viewed as land degradation, due to shrub-induced declines in pastoral productivity. As a consequence, widespread management treatments to reduce shrub density have been applied in many pastoral areas. These treatments, however, often do not have long-term positive benefits for forage production. Alternative uses for shrub-encroached lands have received little consideration, but a recent move towards economic incentives for carbon (C) storage could lead to financially viable alternative land management strategies. We examined changes in above- and belowground C storage following 20 years of factorial land management treatments (grazing/no grazing and shrub removal/no removal) in an Australian semi-arid woodland. Disturbance by shrub removal (root ploughing) and/or livestock grazing significantly reduced the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC). The most disturbed treatment (grazed and ploughed) contained the least SOC (15.30MgCha-1) while protection from grazing and shrub removal led to the greatest SOC (28.49MgCha-1). Declines in SOC in shrub removal treatments (with and without grazing) were compensated, in part, by enhanced aboveground C accumulation, derived mainly from woody plants. Destocking currently grazed shrublands for two decades resulted in a net C accretion, over 20 years, in the order of 6.5Mgha-1, almost entirely through increasing belowground C. At the current price for C in Australia, the economic benefit for C accumulation from removing livestock grazing would be similar to the economic benefit of grazing. The results suggest that C farming in this semi-arid woodland system may offer an economically viable alternative management strategy to grazing, although uncertainties in future climate, C credit value, and assessment protocols present hurdles for implementing alternative management aimed at C farming.
AB - Shrub cover has increased in semi-arid regions worldwide. This change has generally been viewed as land degradation, due to shrub-induced declines in pastoral productivity. As a consequence, widespread management treatments to reduce shrub density have been applied in many pastoral areas. These treatments, however, often do not have long-term positive benefits for forage production. Alternative uses for shrub-encroached lands have received little consideration, but a recent move towards economic incentives for carbon (C) storage could lead to financially viable alternative land management strategies. We examined changes in above- and belowground C storage following 20 years of factorial land management treatments (grazing/no grazing and shrub removal/no removal) in an Australian semi-arid woodland. Disturbance by shrub removal (root ploughing) and/or livestock grazing significantly reduced the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC). The most disturbed treatment (grazed and ploughed) contained the least SOC (15.30MgCha-1) while protection from grazing and shrub removal led to the greatest SOC (28.49MgCha-1). Declines in SOC in shrub removal treatments (with and without grazing) were compensated, in part, by enhanced aboveground C accumulation, derived mainly from woody plants. Destocking currently grazed shrublands for two decades resulted in a net C accretion, over 20 years, in the order of 6.5Mgha-1, almost entirely through increasing belowground C. At the current price for C in Australia, the economic benefit for C accumulation from removing livestock grazing would be similar to the economic benefit of grazing. The results suggest that C farming in this semi-arid woodland system may offer an economically viable alternative management strategy to grazing, although uncertainties in future climate, C credit value, and assessment protocols present hurdles for implementing alternative management aimed at C farming.
KW - Carbon farming
KW - Carbon sequestration
KW - Dryland
KW - Grazing
KW - Shrub removal
KW - Shrubland
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875634808&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84875634808&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.agee.2013.02.001
DO - 10.1016/j.agee.2013.02.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84875634808
SN - 0167-8809
VL - 169
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
JF - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
ER -