317 Cattle and carbon on pastures – hearsay or evidence?

Abstract

Abstract Does soil organic carbon accumulate in high density stocking of pastures? Should the detail of grazing management matter in answering this question? Would wishing that soil carbon increase with a particular type of management mean that it would actually increase? Does a practice that stores soil carbon in one region mean that it will store soil carbon in another region? How would we know the answer to any of these questions if we didn’t collect some relevant information? Soil carbon accumulation might be viewed as limited in potential in the southeastern US with the combination of highly weathered soils and favorable weather conditions for decomposition of organic matter inputs. However, these same environmental conditions could also be viewed as ideal for promoting soil carbon accumulation from a highly degraded state. In fact, there are plenty of soils in the region that have undergone severe degradation from decades of historical degradation. This presentation will explore some approaches taken to answer the question of whether soil carbon can be sequestered in managed pastures of the southeastern US. It will also probe into the question of type of management and its role in potential soil organic carbon sequestration. A combination of published and ongoing research will form the basis of this presentation.