Carbon sequestration by forests and agroforests: a reality check for the United States

Abstract

Climate change is a major global threat affecting food security and sustainability. Land use systems involving trees have the potential to positively impact climate change by reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and providing long-term carbon (C) storage. This review evaluated the C sequestration potential of two major land use systems of the United States (US) involving trees, forests and agroforests, which can also provide other ecosystem services.The estimated total forest C stock on forest land in the US in 1990 was 50,913 Tg and another 1885 Tg remained in harvested wood and discarded wood products. From 1990 to 1995, total C stock rose by 2%, and from 2000 to 2005, it rose by 1.7%. The US forests collectively lose (flux) about 200 Mg C y-1 from disturbance and harvesting. Currently, about 12% of the conterminous US forest land is at high or very high risk of wildfire. Annually, insects and diseases could transfer ~ 21 Tg of live aboveground biomass to litter and woody debris pools. A scenario that targets an afforestation policy for rural landowners in the eastern US and a reforestation policy targeting understocked federal forest lands in the western would improve US annual sequestration compared to the baseline of 323 Tg CO2 eq yr-1 in 2015 to 469 Tg CO2 eq yr-1 in 2050.Agroforestry offers greater potential to increase C sequestration of predominantly agriculture-dominated landscapes than monocrop agriculture by storing C in above- and belowground biomass, soil, and living and dead organisms and further extending the duration of C in soils. The estimated total C sequestration of current alley cropping (211,938 ha), riparian buffers (640,732 ha), silvopasture (34 Mha), and windbreak (2.37 Mha) practices is 219 Tg C yr-1. The total C sequestration would be 240 Tg C yr-1 with 5% of the US cropland converted to alley cropping (3.7 Tg yr-1), 15-m wide riparian buffers on both sides of 5% of the total stream length (4.75 Tg yr-1), 34 Mha converted to silvopasture (207 Tg yr-1), and windbreaks on 5% (7.45 Mha) of the cropland (25 Tg yr-1). Despite many limitations including uncertainty of land areas under agroforestry, lack of standardized estimation protocols, and lack of accountability on various C stocks (source-sink services, detritus C, insect/pest damages, etc.), we believe these new accrual rates and the land areas under each practice are much more realistic as new information became available over the last decade.The total C sequestration by forests (776) and agroforests (219) is 995 Tg yr-1 and represents approximately 15% of the US CO2 emissions. This review highlights the importance of sustainable management of forests and integration of agroforestry on agricultural lands to mitigate climate challenges further while meeting society’s need for food and a healthy environment.

Trees—Protectors Against a Changing Climate

“…Furthermore, it is estimated that >18 PgC could be sequestered by increasing global tree cover on agricultural land by 10% [113]. A determination has been made, which is thought to be more realistic than previous estimates, of the total potential C sequestration in the US by forests at 995 Tg•yr −1 (776 Tg•yr −1 ) and agroforests (219 Tg•yr −1 ) which represents approximately 15% of the US CO2 emissions [114]. It has been shown that both food security and income variability are improved in semi-arid tropical regions of southern India, where agroforestry is employed [115].…”

Plants and their roles in combating contemporary global challenges

“…Biodiversity enhances resilience because crops and cultivars differ in their environmental responses, thus occupying different niches in changing conditions (Vandermeer et al, 1998). Forest ecosystems sequester carbon within woody plants and in healthy organic matter-rich soils (Udawatta et al, 2022). These forest ecosystems absorb 15 to 20% of annual human carbon emissions, and thus play an important role in climate change mitigation (Le Quéré et al, 2018;Case et al, 2021).…”

Balancing Livestock Environmental Footprints with Forestry-Based Solutions: A Review

“…For instance, aged trees store more atmospheric carbon than young trees [135][136][137]. The potential for carbon sequestration also varies depending on the type of forest, shrubs, agroforests, and other life forms and soil under the species [134,138,139]. Global interest has recently been placed on nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation [140][141][142], highlighting the potential of forests in carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere and carbon storage in the soil [127,143].…”