Summary
This Nature review by Paustian and colleagues examines the concept of 'climate-smart soils', assessing how improved soil and land management practices — including reduced tillage, cover cropping, improved grazing management, and organic amendments — can contribute to climate change mitigation through enhanced soil carbon sequestration and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The paper likely synthesises existing evidence to estimate the global mitigation potential of these approaches and identifies barriers to their widespread adoption. It positions soil management as a critical and underutilised component of climate change strategies.
UK applicability
Although global in scope, the findings are broadly applicable to UK agricultural policy and practice, particularly in the context of the UK's Net Zero commitments and agri-environment schemes such as Sustainable Farming Incentive, which incentivise soil carbon-building practices.
Key measures
Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks; greenhouse gas mitigation potential (Gt CO2-equivalent per year); land management practice adoption rates
Outcomes reported
The paper reviews the potential of soils to sequester carbon and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through improved land management practices. It likely quantifies the global mitigation potential of soil carbon management across major land use types.
Topic tags
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