Carbon Sequestration to Avoid Soil Degradation: A Review on the Role of Conservation Tillage.

Sadam Hussain,Usman Zulifqar,Ru Guo,Zubair Aslam,Saddam Hussain,Muhammad Sarwar,Mohamed A El-Esawi,Abdur Rauf,Djordje Krstic,Christophe Hano,Xiaolong Ren

doi:10.3390/plants10102001

Abstract

Human efforts to produce more food for increasing populations leave marks on the environment. The use of conventional agricultural practices, including intensive tillage based on the removal of crop residue, has magnified soil erosion and soil degradation. In recent years, the progressive increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has created global interest in identifying different sustainable strategies in order to reduce their concentration in the atmosphere. Carbon stored in soil is 2–4 times higher than that stored in the atmosphere and four times more when compared to carbon stored in the vegetation. The process of carbon sequestration (CS) involves transferring CO2 from the atmosphere into the soil or storage of other forms of carbon to either defer or mitigate global warming and avoid dangerous climate change. The present review discusses the potential of soils in sequestering carbon and mitigating the accelerated greenhouse effects by adopting different agricultural management practices. A significant amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) could be sequestered by conversion of conventional tillage to conservation tillage. The most important aspect of conservation agriculture is thought to improve plant growth and soil health without damaging the environment. In the processes of climate change mitigation and adaptation, zero tillage has been found to be the most eco-friendly method among different tillage techniques. No-till practice is considered to enable sustainable cropping intensification to meet future agricultural demands. Although no-tillage suggests merely the absence of tillage, in reality, several components need to be applied to a conservation agriculture system to guarantee higher or equal yields and better environmental performance than conventional tillage systems.

Highlights

Global warming driven by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has increased Earth’s temperature and is likely to exceed 1.5 ◦C by the end of this century [1,2]
Adoption of cover crops (CC) in the cropping system is recommended as a management strategy for increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration rate [109,110]
Careful management of natural resources is the most effective strategy to cope with the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture, which is a most sensitive sector relative to changing climatic conditions

Summary

Introduction

Global warming driven by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has increased Earth’s temperature and is likely to exceed 1.5 ◦C by the end of this century [1,2]. Conservation agriculture, including the use of woody crops and residue-based zero tillage, improves the water infiltration into deeper soil layers, moderates soil temperature, prevents soil erosion, reduces weed infestations, improves soil aggregation, minimizes soil compaction, increases soil organic matter contents, reduces the emission of GHGs, decreases the production costs, and maintains some fallow through direct seeding [27,28] This practice protects natural resources and sustains crop productivity, and long-term use of residue-based zero tillage is an effective approach for sequestering environmental CO2 into the soil, which maintains high crop yields [24,29,30]. A major focus was given on the extent and scope of SOC sequestration by shifting from conventional tillage to conservation tillage

Major Causes and Factors for the Depletion of Soil Organic Carbon

Management of Soil Organic Carbon

Mechanism of Soil C Sequestration

Conservation Agriculture and NT for Soil Organic Carbon

Findings

Conclusions and Future Perspectives