Author
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Mayeux Jr, Herman |
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Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/2001 Publication Date: 12/1/2001 Citation: MAYEUX JR, H.S. SUMMARY AND SYNTHESIS: MANAGING GRAZINGLANDS FOR CARBON STORAGE. AGRONOMY ABSTRACTS. 2001. Abstract No. c06-mayeux165155-o. CD-ROM. Interpretive Summary: Abstract Only. Technical Abstract: Presentations at this symposium and data published elsewhere provide evidence that grazinglands represent a carbon (C) sink that is stronger than we might have predicted. Papers presented here and elsewhere support the principle that any change or input that increases productivity of vegetation is likely to enhance soil organic C contents. Applying that principle, we might expect fire in the West and N fertilization in the Eas to have a positive effect. Controlled fire enhanced annual C fluxes into a tallgrass prairie. Grazing did not appear to alter C fluxes into shortgrass steppe or northern mixed prairie, but measurements of soil C contents at those sites suggest that moderate grazing for decades increased soil C contents. A similar response to grazing is reported in the Southeast. Interest in the quantities of C that can be stored in grazingland soils is generally predicated on their large areal extent, but, ,in additional to relatively high net primary production (NPP), grazingland are also often characterized by vegetation that is deeply rooted, partitions high proportions of total biomass into below-ground tissues, and exhibits high root turn-over rates. Grazingland soils are infrequently subjected to tillage or other disturbance. C storage rates may approach those of forests on well-managed rangelands and where perennial forages are produced under intensive management and harvested to maintain high NPP. |
