Grassland vs forest carbon sequestration8/13/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Grasslands, which comprise approximately 40% of Earth’s natural vegetation 9, contain a substantial amount of the world’s SOC 10. Since halting land degradation and restoring degraded soils and their associated services is essential for building agro-ecological systems that meet global development goals 6, 7, the management of soil resources will have wide-ranging consequences on human well-being for generations to come 8. Yet, soil organic carbon (SOC), which makes up about two thirds of global soil carbon 3, is sensitive to land degradation 4, with significant negative consequences for soil quality and productivity and an exacerbation of greenhouse gas emissions 5. Moreover, they present a relatively stable carbon stock, as compared to the more transitory carbon stock in woody biomass 2. Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon reservoir containing more carbon than vegetation and the atmosphere combined 1. We argue that, in contrast to encroachment by invasive alien trees, restoration of grasslands in tropical semi-arid regions can both serve as a measure for climate change mitigation and help restore key ecosystem services important for pastoralists and agro-pastoralist communities. juliflora increased soil organic carbon primarily in the upper 30 cm and suppressed herbaceous vegetation. Thirty years of grassland restoration replenished soil organic carbon to 1 m depth at a rate of 1.4% per year and restored herbaceous biomass to levels of pristine grasslands, while plant biodiversity remained low. We assessed how invasion by Prosopis juliflora and restoration of degraded grasslands in a semi-arid region in Baringo, Kenya affected soil organic carbon, biodiversity and fodder availability. However, even in cases where tree encroachment of degraded grasslands leads to increased soil organic carbon, it may come at a high cost since the restoration of grassland-characteristic biodiversity and ecosystem services will be blocked. Afforestation of degraded grassland, sometimes by using invasive alien trees, has been put forward as a legitimate climate change mitigation strategy. Grassland degradation and the concomitant loss of soil organic carbon is widespread in tropical arid and semi-arid regions of the world. ![]()
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