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Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil Conservation and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (19 October 2023) | Viewed by 4723

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Dr. Shri Kant Tripathi

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Guest Editor

Department of Forestry, School of Earth Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Mizoram University, Aizawl 796004, India
Interests: ecosystem ecology biodiversity conservation carbon sequestration soil-microbe-plant interaction

Dr. Keshav Upadhyay

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Guest Editor

Department of Forestry, Mizoram University, Aizawl 796004, India
Interests: dendro-climatology and dendro-ecology; wood anatomy; soil science; climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Atmospheric CO₂ concentration has increased from ~280 ppm in the pre-industrial era to ~415 ppm currently, which is an increase at a rate of ~2 ppm year-1 (ca. 3.5 Gt year-1) as a result of fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and biomass burning necessitated by a growing world population (i.e., ~8 billion now and a projected 9.5 billion by 2050). Fossil fuel combustion is increasing at the rate of ~2.5% year-1, particularly in emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil, because of increasing global energy demand to satisfy human needs. Anthropogenic perturbations of the global carbon (C) cycle have led to serious concerns about the risks of global warming and possible sea level rise. To overcome these problems, there is an urgent need to identify viable sinks for atmospheric CO₂ and methods to sequester it into other C pools with long residence time (e.g., geologic, oceanic, chemical transformations, and terrestrial). In contrast to engineering technologies (such as geologic), C sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems (particularly in vegetation and soil as humus) is a natural process and is cost-effective, with many additional benefits. Therefore, increasing forest tree density, expansion of agroforestry, and C enrichment of agricultural soils would be better options to sequester C in terrestrial ecosystems. Furthermore, part of this plant biomass will be returned to the soil every year and converted into stable humic substances and organo-mineral complexes with a long residence time. The effectiveness of C sequestration in the soil depends on the quantity and the quality of biomass returned to the soil and the rate at which the decomposition of litter and transformation of humus takes place, which varies in space and time. Thus, a clearer understanding is required to expand our abilities to assess the changes in forest C dynamics and to develop strategies to sustain terrestrial ecosystems and their abilities to serve our society in the future.

The current research theme featured within Sustainability aims to bring together relevant scientific contributions on carbon dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., forest, savanna, agroecosystems) in different terrestrial biomes. We invite contributions on topics including:

Carbon dynamics in natural and modified ecosystems;
Pools of and fluxes in carbon in vegetation and soil;
Soil–plant-microbe interactions and carbon cycling;
Soil carbon, litter decomposition, and humification;
Terrestrial carbon cycling and global change.

We welcome papers including observational, experimental, and modeling studies, as well as review and opinion papers

Dr. Shri Kant Tripathi
Dr. Keshav Upadhyay
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

global change
terrestrial ecosystems
carbon sequestration
soil carbon stock
vegetation carbon pool
labile carbon pool

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27 pages, 21980 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon Storage Patterns and Landscape Sustainability in Northeast Portugal: A Digital Mapping Approach

by Matheus B. Patrício, Marcos Lado, Tomás de Figueiredo, João C. Azevedo, Paulo A. A. Bueno and Felícia Fonseca

Sustainability 2023, 15(24), 16853; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416853 - 14 Dec 2023

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Abstract

This study investigated the impact of regional land abandonment in northeast Portugal. It specifically focused on carbon sequestration opportunities in the Upper Sabor River Watershed, situated in the northeast of Portugal, amidst agricultural land abandonment. The study involved mapping the distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) across four soil layers (0–5 cm, 5–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and 20–30 cm) at 120 sampling points. The quantification of SOC storage (measured in Mg C ha⁻¹) allowed for an analysis of its relationship with various landscape characteristics, including elevation, land use and land cover (LULC), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), modified soil-adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI), topographic wetness index (TWI), and erosion risk (ER). Six statistical tests were employed, including multivariate approaches like Cubist and Random Forest, within different scenarios to assess carbon distribution within the watershed’s soils. These modeling results were then utilized to propose strategies aimed at enhancing soil carbon storage. Notably, a significant discrepancy was observed in the carbon content between areas at higher elevations (>1000 m) and those at lower elevations (<800 m). Additionally, the study found that the amount of carbon stored in agricultural soils was often significantly lower than in other land use categories, including forests, mountain herbaceous vegetation, pasture, and shrub communities. Analyzing bi- and multivariate scenarios, it was determined that the scenario with the greatest number of independent variables (set 6) yielded the lowest RMSE (root mean squared error), serving as a key indicator for evaluating predicted values against observed values. However, it is important to note that the independent variables used in set 4 (elevation, LULC, and NDVI) had reasonably similar values. Ultimately, the spatialization of the model from scenario 6 provided actionable insights for soil carbon conservation and enhancement across three distinct elevation levels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems)

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22 pages, 19768 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantifying the Unvoiced Carbon Pools of the Nilgiri Hill Region in the Western Ghats Global Biodiversity Hotspot—First Report

by M. Jagadesh, Cherukumalli Srinivasarao, Duraisamy Selvi, Subramanium Thiyageshwari, Thangavel Kalaiselvi, Aradhna Kumari, Santhosh Kumar Singh, Keisar Lourdusamy, Ramalingam Kumaraperumal, Victor Allan, Munmun Dash, P. Raja, U. Surendran and Biswajit Pramanick

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5520; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065520 - 21 Mar 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1869

Abstract

Accelerating land-use change (LUC) in the Nilgiri Hill Region (NHR) has caused its land to mortify. Although this deterioration has been documented, the destruction of buried gem soil has not been reported. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the impact of LUC on soil-carbon dynamics in the six major ecosystems in the NHR: croplands (CLs), deciduous forests (DFs), evergreen forests (EFs), forest plantations (FPs), scrublands (SLs), and tea plantations (TPs). Sampling was conducted at selected sites of each ecosystem at three depth classes (0–15, 15–30, and 30–45 cm) to quantify the carbon pools (water-soluble carbon, water-soluble carbohydrates, microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, dehydrogenase, and different fractions of particulate organic carbon). We found that the LUC significantly decreased the concentration of carbon in the altered ecosystems (49.44–78.38%), with the highest being recorded at EF (10.25%) and DF (7.15%). In addition, the effects of the LUC on the aggregate size of the organic carbon were dissimilar across all the aggregate sizes. The relatively high inputs of the aboveground plant residues and the richer fine-root biomass were accountable for the higher concentration of carbon pools in the untouched EFs and DFs compared to the SLs, FPs, TPs, and CLs. The results of the land-degradation Index (LDI) depicted the higher vulnerability of TP (−72.67) and CL (−79.00). Thus, our findings highlight the global importance of LUC to soil quality. Henceforth, the conservation of carbon pools in fragile ecosystems, such as the NHR, is crucial to keep soils alive and achieve land-degradation neutrality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems)

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12 pages, 1667 KiB

Open AccessEssay

Short-Term Effects of Tunnel Construction on Soil Organic Carbon and Enzyme Activity in Shrublands in Eastern Tibet Plateau

by Xiaodong Wang, Yang Xiao, Xinrui Luo, Chenyu Ye, Yuzhuo Chen, Jincheng Xiang, Ningfei Lei, Ci Song, Xiangjun Pei and Xiaolu Tang

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5107; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065107 - 14 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1415

Abstract

Soil is the largest carbon pool, and our understanding of soil organic carbon (SOC) has been enhanced due to its role in mitigating climate change. However, fundamental uncertainty remains about the quantitative importance of tunnel excavation, one of the most common practices for road construction in mountainous areas, on the SOC dynamics. Therefore, the short-term effects of tunnel construction on SOC and its fraction, soil microbial carbon, and soil enzyme activity within 0–20 cm in two shrublands (dominated by Quercus aquifolioides and mixed with Q. aquifolioides, Rhododendron phaeochrysum and Betula platyphylla, respectively) in Eastern Tibet Plateau were investigated. The results showed that, regardless of vegetation type, SOC, dissolved organic carbon, and easily oxidizable carbon were 27.14 ± 2.87, 6.70 ± 0.74, and 0.29 ± 0.10 g kg⁻¹ for tunnel-affected area of Q. aquifolioides and 47.96 ± 17.89, 11.19 ± 2.92, and 0.24 ± 0.04 g kg⁻¹ for the mixture of Q. aquifolioides, R. phaeochrysum, and B. platyphylla, respectively. The values were not significantly different from those of tunnel unaffected areas (p > 0.05). Similarly, soil enzymes (except cellulase) were not significantly different between tunnel-affected and unaffected areas (p > 0.05), indicating that tunnel construction had a minor impact on the SOC fractions and soil enzymes in the early stage. The unchanged SOC and enzyme activities may be associated with no changes in vegetation production and soil water content in tunnel-affected areas. However, vegetation type had a significant impact on SOC and its fractions and soil enzymes (p < 0.05), demonstrating the importance of vegetation control on the SOC fraction and soil enzymes. This study would be one of the earliest studies to explore the effects of tunnel construction on soil carbon dynamics based on field experiment, which could provide a new concept on environmental sustainability during tunnel construction. However, a long-term study is encouraged to detect the effects of tunnel construction SOC and soil enzymes in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems)

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