More than one-third of the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere stem from agriculture and forestry. One of the current concerns is to find ways of managing agriculture differently in order to increase the level of carbon storage in soils and limit emission of gases that contribute to global atmospheric warming.
Photosynthesis ensures that plants assimilate carbon dioxide, in the form of plant carbon, part of which (in roots and crop residues) is returned to the soil and stored in a stable form in organic matter. The quantities of carbon stored in the soil depend as much on crop practices as on the soil characteristics. However, some agricultural practices (such as fertilizing and irrigation) favour emission of other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide. Alternative plantation management methods often recommended include the omission of ploughing and cultivation under plant cover. IRD researchers are working on quantitative field assessment of different management alternatives for agriculture and forestry in tropical areas. In Brazil, they have been working with local partners (1) and have brought to evidence the advantages of changing over from traditional methods of sugarcane harvesting involving burning to practices that omit burning.
In Brazil, sugarcane plantations occupy nearly 5 million hectares and produce 10 to 15 tonnes (dry weight) of leaves per hectare per year. Traditional harvesting is a manual method and is carried out after burning of the uncut cane. Burning of the leaves immediately changes the plant carbon into carbon dioxide and methane, which add to existing atmospheric concentrations. It also leads to emissions of nitrous oxide, which comes from part of the plant nitrogen. Methane and nitrous oxide have high potential for contributing to global warming, respectively 20 and 300 times higher than that of carbon dioxide. Moreover, plantation burning liberates potentially toxic, polluting carbon-rich ash and, owing to the elimination of leaf litter, favours soil erosion. An alternative to this system is the non-burning method, but this practice demands mechanization of harvesting (2). In this case, the leaves are left lying as a mulch on the ground. Decomposition releases most of their components (80 to 90%) as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during the year that follows. The remainder (10 to 20%) can accumulate as litter or become incorporated in the first few centimetres of soil, in this way increasing the amount of carbon stored.
Marie Guillaume | alfa
Further information:
http://www.ird.fr
Northeast-Atlantic fish stocks: Recovery driven by improved management
04.02.2019 | Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei
New mathematical model can help save endangered species
14.01.2019 | University of Southern Denmark
For the first time, an international team of scientists based in Regensburg, Germany, has recorded the orbitals of single molecules in different charge states in a novel type of microscopy. The research findings are published under the title “Mapping orbital changes upon electron transfer with tunneling microscopy on insulators” in the prestigious journal “Nature”.
The building blocks of matter surrounding us are atoms and molecules. The properties of that matter, however, are often not set by these building blocks...
Scientists at the University of Konstanz identify fierce competition between the human immune system and bacterial pathogens
Cell biologists from the University of Konstanz shed light on a recent evolutionary process in the human immune system and publish their findings in the...
Laser physicists have taken snapshots of carbon molecules C₆₀ showing how they transform in intense infrared light
When carbon molecules C₆₀ are exposed to an intense infrared light, they change their ball-like structure to a more elongated version. This has now been...
The so-called Abelian sandpile model has been studied by scientists for more than 30 years to better understand a physical phenomenon called self-organized...
Physicists from the University of Basel have developed a new method to examine the elasticity and binding properties of DNA molecules on a surface at extremely low temperatures. With a combination of cryo-force spectroscopy and computer simulations, they were able to show that DNA molecules behave like a chain of small coil springs. The researchers reported their findings in Nature Communications.
DNA is not only a popular research topic because it contains the blueprint for life – it can also be used to produce tiny components for technical applications.
Anzeige
Anzeige
Global Legal Hackathon at HAW Hamburg
11.02.2019 | Event News
The world of quantum chemistry meets in Heidelberg
30.01.2019 | Event News
16.01.2019 | Event News
Gravitational waves will settle cosmic conundrum
15.02.2019 | Physics and Astronomy
Spintronics by 'straintronics'
15.02.2019 | Physics and Astronomy
Platinum nanoparticles for selective treatment of liver cancer cells
15.02.2019 | Life Sciences