Could Dirt Help Heal the Climate? Although previous experiments have shown that compost increases soil carbon, Silver is among the first to examine whether real-world ranchers can use it effectively to enrich the soil on their rangeland.
She has already found a large increase in soil carbon two years after a single application of compost, probably due to enhanced vegetation growth. On the basis of her results, Silver projects that 28 million acres of grazing land in California could absorb 42 million tons of carbon dioxide—nearly 40 percent of what the state’s electrical power plants produce in a year. To accomplish that, each acre of land must absorb just 1.5 additional tons of carbon dioxide. “Given what we’ve seen in our experiments,” Silver says, “one and a half tons is doable.” In Australia, Christine Jones, soil ecologist emerita of the New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation, is testing another promising soil- enrichment strategy, one that relies on perennial grasses.
The Climate, Water, and Carbon Program at OSU - People: Biography for Rattan Lal. Office Information 422B Kottman Hall Phone: (614) 292-9069 Fax: (614) 292-7432 Email: lal.1@osu.edu lal.1 at osu.edu Biography Rattan Lal is a Professor of Soil Science in the School of Environment and Natural Resources.
He is the Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Professor Lal conducts research in carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems, soil dynamics and processes, and natural resources management with emphasis on food security and environmental quality in the United States, Africa, Latin America, and India. Professor Lal is the recipient of prestigious Norman E. He has authored, reviewed and edited 1,200 journal articles and publications during his career, and has published in a variety of journals including Science and Soil & Tillage Research. Selected Publications. Book: Soil Carbon Sequestration and the Greenhouse EffectPublished by: Soil Science Society of America. Foreword The Soil Science Society of America is very pleased to publish the second edition of Soil Carbon Sequestration and the Greenhouse Effect.
This timely publication, produced by internationally recognized experts, has been totally updated and new and emerging topics addressed in additional chapters. Given the importance of the soil carbon pool's contribution to key ecosystem services that sustain life and the critical role of the soil resource as a source and sink of greenhouse gases, the relevancy and immediacy of this publication cannot be overemphasized. This volume fills a critical need for a comprehensive compilation and evaluation of the key processes controlling soil carbon dynamics in diverse terrestrial ecosystems, as well as approaches for modeling these processes.
Paul M. Preface The soil carbon pool is a major component of the global carbon cycle. This volume is a second edition of the book Soil Carbon Sequestration and the Greenhouse Effect. Rattan Lal, Co-editor Fig. 1.