Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration A Research Agenda (2018)Scientist Keith Paustian at Colorado State University is co-author on a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration.

In the report, Paustian described the state of the art and challenges of terrestrial carbon sequestration or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by accelerating carbon storage in soil, plants and wood biomass.

Chapter 3: “Terrestrial Carbon Removal and Sequestration”, describes land use and management practices within forests and agricultural lands that increase the total inventory of carbon in the terrestrial biosphere, acting as a “carbon sink” for atmospheric warming. These include:

 

  • Management methods on croplands or pastures, such as reduced tillage or the planting cover crops that increase the total amount of organic carbon contained in agricultural soils
  • Planting forest on lands that used to be forest, but were converted to another use (reforestation), or planting forest on lands that were originally grasslands or shrublands (afforestation)
  • Forest management practices that increase the amount of carbon per unit land area on existing forest, such as accelerating regeneration after disturbance or lengthening harvest rotations

Access the full report here.