Wang Yue, de Boer Imke J M, Persson U Martin, Ripoll-Bosch Raimon, Cederberg Christel, Gerber Pierre J, Smith Pete, van Middelaar Corina E
Animal Production Systems group, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Physical Resource Theory, Department of Space, Earth & Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Nat Commun. 2023 Nov 22;14(1):7625. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43452-3.
Carbon sequestration in grasslands has been proposed as an important means to offset greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant systems. To understand the potential and limitations of this strategy, we need to acknowledge that soil carbon sequestration is a time-limited benefit, and there are intrinsic differences between short- and long-lived greenhouse gases. Here, our analysis shows that one tonne of carbon sequestrated can offset radiative forcing of a continuous emission of 0.99 kg methane or 0.1 kg nitrous oxide per year over 100 years. About 135 gigatonnes of carbon is required to offset the continuous methane and nitrous oxide emissions from ruminant sector worldwide, nearly twice the current global carbon stock in managed grasslands. For various regions, grassland carbon stocks would need to increase by approximately 25% - 2,000%, indicating that solely relying on carbon sequestration in grasslands to offset warming effect of emissions from current ruminant systems is not feasible.
草原碳固存已被提议作为抵消反刍动物系统温室气体排放的重要手段。为了解该策略的潜力和局限性，我们需要认识到土壤碳固存是一种有时间限制的益处，并且短期和长期存在的温室气体之间存在本质区别。在此，我们的分析表明，固存的1吨碳可以抵消100年内每年持续排放0.99千克甲烷或0.1千克一氧化二氮的辐射强迫。抵消全球反刍动物部门持续的甲烷和一氧化二氮排放大约需要1350亿吨碳，这几乎是目前全球人工管理草地碳储量的两倍。对于不同地区而言，草地碳储量需要增加约25% - 2000%，这表明仅依靠草原碳固存来抵消当前反刍动物系统排放的变暖效应是不可行的。
