49-7 Agroforestry's Role In Greenhouse Gas Mitigation In the United States.

See more from this Division: Canadian Society of Soil Science
See more from this Session: Symposium--Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Managed Systems
Monday, October 17, 2011: 11:20 AM
Henry Gonzalez Convention Center, Room 207A
Share |

Shibu Jose and Ranjith Udawatta, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
Agroforestry, an ecologically and environmentally sustainable land use, offers great promise to mitigate greenhouse gases, in particular CO2.  This presentation will provide an overview of C sequestration opportunities available under various agroforestry practices in the United States.  Since accurate land area under agroforestry is not available, the potential C sequestration is estimated based on several assumptions about the area under different agroforestry practices in the US: 1.69 million ha under riparian buffer, 17.9 million ha (10% of total cropland) under alley cropping, and 78 million ha under silvopasture (23.7 million ha or 10% of pasture land and 54 million ha of grazed forests).  Based on these, we estimate C sequestration potential for riparian buffers, alley cropping, and silvopasture in the US as 4.7, 60.9, and 474 Tg C yr–1, respectively.  Establishment of windbreaks to protect cropland and farmstead could sequester another 8.79 Tg C yr–1.  Thus, the potential for C sequestration under agroforestry systems in the US is estimated as 548.4 Tg yr–1.  The C sequestered by agroforestry could help offset current US emission rate of 1600 Tg C yr–1 from burning fossil fuel (coal, oil, and gas) by 34%.  These preliminary estimates indicate the important role of agroforestry as a promising CO2 mitigation strategy in the US, and possibly in other parts of North America. 
See more from this Division: Canadian Society of Soil Science
See more from this Session: Symposium--Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Managed Systems