Carbon Soil Storage and Technologies to Increase Soil Carbon Stocks in the South American Savanna

Author(s)

Castellano, Gabriel Ribeiro ; Santos, Landerlei Almeida ; Menegario, Amauri Antonio

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: SUSTAINABILITY; v. 14, n. 9, p. 22-pg., 2022-05-01.

Abstract

The expansion of the agricultural frontiers that occurred in the last decades in the South American savanna (Cerrado), the second-largest biome in Brazil (covering an area of 204 million hectares), has accounted for a substantial portion of South America's CO2 emissions. In this context, our research investigated the potential for soil carbon storage in the biome. The analysis of previous data (n = 197) shows a vertical distribution pattern of soil carbon stock: 26.17% for the upper 0-30 cm layer, 37.67% for the 30-100 cm layer, and 36.15% for the 100-200 cm layer. The total soil carbon storage for the biome is 13.5 +/- 6.7 gigatons (n = 71) for the upper 0-30 cm layer, 30.5 +/- 18.9 Gt (n = 64) for the 0-100 cm layer, and 47.8 +/- 4.3 (n = 9) for the 0-200 cm layer. The results indicate that the soil carbon stock up to 1 m deep in the Cerrado ranges from 0.5% to 2.29% of the global soil organic carbon storage for this depth. Further research is necessary to investigate what happens at a depth of at least 2 m. The results also indicate that the soil under pasture lands constitutes the largest manageable pool for increasing soil carbon stocks via the restoration of degraded pastures. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 21/00572-0 - Determination, speciation and evaluation of bioavailability (transfers between water-soil-plant systems) of technologically critical elements (TCE)
• Grantee: Amauri Antonio Menegário
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants