Large climate mitigation potential from adding trees to agricultural lands. (2nd June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chapman, Melissa; Walker, Wayne S.; Cook‐Patton, Susan C.; Ellis, Peter W.; Farina, Mary; Griscom, Bronson W.; Baccini, Alessandro
• Is Part Of: Global change biology. Volume 26:Number 8(2020)
• Page Start: 4357
• Page End: 4365
• Publication Date: 2020-06-02
• Subjects: agroforestry -- carbon storage -- climate change mitigation -- cropland -- land use -- pasture land; Climatic changes -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Troposphere -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Biodiversity conservation -- Periodicals; Eutrophication -- Periodicals; 551.5
• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15121
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-1013

Abstract

Abstract: While improved management of agricultural landscapes is promoted as a promising natural climate solution, available estimates of the mitigation potential are based on coarse assessments of both agricultural extent and aboveground carbon density. Here we combine 30 meter resolution global maps of aboveground woody carbon, tree cover, and cropland extent, as well as a 1 km resolution map of global pasture land, to estimate the current and potential carbon storage of trees in nonforested portions of agricultural lands. We find that global croplands currently store 3.07 Pg of carbon (C) in aboveground woody biomass (i.e., trees) and pasture lands account for an additional 3.86 Pg C across a combined 3.76 billion ha. We then estimate the climate mitigation potential of multiple scenarios of integration and avoided loss of trees in crop and pasture lands based on region‐specific biomass distributions. We evaluate our findings in the context of nationally determined contributions and find that the majority of potential carbon storage from integration and avoided loss of trees in crop and pasture lands is in countries that do not identify agroforestry as a climate mitigation technique. Abstract : While improved management of agricultural landscapes is promoted as a promising natural climate solution, available estimates of mitigation potential are based on coarse assessments of both agricultural extent and aboveground carbon density. We refine these global estimates using 30 meter data and find that global croplands (a, c) currently store 3.07 Pg of carbon (C) in aboveground woody biomass (i.e., trees) while pasture lands (b, d) account for an additional 3.86 Pg C across a combined 3.76 billion ha. We then estimate the climate mitigation potential of integration and avoided loss of trees in crop and pasture lands, based on region‐specific biomass distributions (c, d).