Strategic management of grazing grassland systems to maintain and increase organic carbon in soils.

• Autor(a) principal: KHALIL, M. I.
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: FRANCAVIGLIA, R., HENRY, B., KLUMPP, K., KONCZ, P., LLORENTE, M., MADARI, B. E., MUÑOZ-ROJAS, M., NERGER, R.
• Tipo de documento: Capítulo de livro
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da EMBRAPA (Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from EMBRAPA - Alice)
• Texto Completo: http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/alice/handle/doc/1109626
• topic: Carbono; Carbon sequestration; Grazing; Grasslands; Silvopastoral systems; Integrated agricultural systems; Intensive livestock farming

Understanding management-induced C sequestration potential in soils under agriculture, forestry, and other land use systems and their quantification to offset increasing greenhouse gases are of global concern. This chapter reviews management-induced changes in C storage in soils of grazing grassland systems, their impacts on ecosystem functions, and their adaptability and needs of protection across socio-economic and cultural settings. In general, improved management of grassland/pasture such as manuring/slurry application, liming and rotational grazing, and low to medium livestock units could sequester C more than under high intensity grazing conditions. Converting cultivated land to pasture, restoration of degraded land, and maximizing pasture phases in mixed-cropping, pasture with mixed-livestock, integrated forestry-pasturage of livestock (silvopastoral) and crop-forestry-pasturage of livestock (agro-silvopastoral) systems could also maintain and enhance soil organic C density (SOCp). In areas receiving low precipitation and having high erodibility, grazing exclusion might restore degraded grasslands and increase SOCp. Yet, optimizing C sequestration rates, sowing of more productive grass varieties, judicial inorganic and organic fertilization, rotational grazing, and other climate-resilient approaches could improve overall farm productivity and profitability and attain sustainability in livestock farming systems.