Storing carbon in soil. Can we slow a revolving door?

Abstract

There is no doubt that soils are a vast store of carbon and partially control the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. Maintaining soil organic matter is also crucial for production and environmental protection. Land-use change and management practices are central to maintaining soil carbon, because these can both increase and decrease soil carbon. Pasture systems can store large amounts of soil carbon and there may be an opportunity to store more in New Zealand dairy systems with multiple benefits. Active research is investigating approaches to achieve this goal through the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.