Managing Rangeland Soils for C Sequestration - 808

Principle Investigator: Dr. Wendy Silver, ESPM

University of California Berkeley, for more project information click here

Management practices may have considerable potential to restore or increase grassland carbon stage and help mitigate climate change. The specific goals of this research have included the following: 1) assess the effects of management practices on the net carbon balance in grasslands amended with compost, 2) measure changes to soil carbon and nitrogen stocks following compost amendment, 3) investigate the long-term fate of compost carbon and net climate change mitigation potential, and 4) explore the extent of tradeoffs between carbon sequestration strategies and vegetation characteristics. The results to date show that compost applications appear to increase ecosystem carbon storage while benefitting forage production