Agriculture is multi-functional, producing economic goods including food, feed, fibre, and fuel, as well as providing several intangible or non-tradable services to society free of cost. Non-tradable services, unlike economic goods, remain unpriced; as a result, farmers are not compensated monetarily for the benefits of the several non-tradable services they …
Growing cash crops is not a new thing in Indian tradition, but considered in the context of efficient land use, food- & fodder security, environmental- & ecological security, and of course the socio-economic security land use changes for growing cash crops that are incompatible to all or most of such …
Vegetation restoration has been conducted in the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) since the 1950s, and large areas of farmland have been converted to forest and grassland, which largely results in SOC change. However, there has been little comparative research on SOC sequestration and distribution between secondary forest and restored grassland. …
Steady-state and dynamic gas exchange responses to ozone visible injury were investigated in an ozone-sensitive poplar clone under field conditions. The results were translated into whole tree water loss and carbon assimilation by comparing trees exposed to ambient ozone and trees treated with the ozone-protectant ethylenediurea (EDU). Steady-state stomatal conductance …
Apple production systems are an important component in the Chinese agricultural sector with 1.99 million ha plantation. The orchards in China could play an important role in the carbon (C) cycle of terrestrial ecosystems and contribute to C sequestration. The carbon sequestration capability in apple orchards was analyzed through identifying …
Fossil fuel combustion and fertilizer application in the United States have substantially altered the nitrogen cycle, with serious effects on climate change. The climate effects can be short-lived, by impacting the chemistry of the atmosphere, or long-lived, by altering ecosystem greenhouse gas fluxes. Here we develop a coherent framework for …
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the largest among three major carbon pools of global ecosystems. During the past few years, global warming and forcible land-use changes have resulted in a huge loss of this major carbon pool and as a consequence, concentration of atmospheric CO2 has increased. To mitigate the …
Industrial agricultural plantations are a rapidly increasing yet largely unmeasured source of tropical land cover change. Here, we evaluate impacts of oil palm plantation development on land cover, carbon flux, and agrarian community lands in West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. With a spatially explicit land change/carbon bookkeeping model, parameterized using high-resolution …
The potential of grazing lands to sequester carbon must be understood to develop effective soil conservation measures and sustain livestock production. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of grazing on soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) in Typical steppe and Desert steppe ecosystems, which …
Litterfall added by trees enriches the organic matter and nutrient content of soil under the trees. The influence of tree species was evaluated on soil organic carbon (OC), available macro (N, P and K) and micronutrient (Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu) concentration of soil and their accumulation in the soil.
This best practices guidance document is intended to help development professionals and government officials who are involved in agricultural and rural development investment operations to mainstream climate change considerations in programme identification, design and supervision. The link between food security, rural livelihoods and climate change is well recognized, and the …
The purpose of this report is to improve the knowledge base for facilitating investments in land management technologies that sequester soil organic carbon. While there are many studies on soil carbon sequestration, there is no single unifying volume that synthesizes knowledge on the impact of different land management practices on …
The agricultural sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for up to 30 per cent of the global total. Agriculture is itself also affected by climate change, with overall impacts predicted to be negative, particularly in poor countries. These are likely to have serious consequences, both …
In the developing world climate change has far more ramifications than can be addressed by controlling just carbon emissions. The developed world has stable populations and landscapes, and is thus affected mainly by the air which spreads democratically without boundaries. On the other hand, the developing world with increasing populations …
We quantified the wholesale transformation of the boreal landscape by open-pit oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada to evaluate its effect on carbon storage and sequestration. Contrary to claims made in the media, peatland destroyed by open-pit mining will not be restored. Current plans dictate its replacement with upland forest …
The finding that reactive iron species may have a role in stabilizing organic matter in ocean sediments underlines the tight coupling between the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and iron.
Exploring the prospects of the ecosystem services approach for natural resource management and poverty alleviation in India, this paper points out that it is vital to have an understanding of the political economy of negotiations over natural resource use. An appreciation of the synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services is …
The impact of protection on the ecology and ecosystem services of a fragmented sacred grove of Karnataka in agricultural landscape was studied. Comparative assessment of two time scale data revealed positive influence of protection on vegetation in term of species richness, diversity, endemism and basal area. An increment in above …
The atmospheric and deep sea reservoirs of carbon dioxide are linked via physical, chemical, and biological processes. The last of these include photosynthesis, particle settling, and organic matter remineralization, and are collectively termed the “biological carbon pump.” Herein, we present results from a 13-y (1992–2004) sediment trap experiment conducted in …
The World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) has released a report on its “Taking the Heat Out of Farming” project that helps Indian smallholders to join the global carbon market in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. The project is based on the SMART-CDM approach, which introduces specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and tangible practices …
