Short communication. Potential to mitigate anthropogenic CO2 emissions by tillage reduction in dryland soils of Spain

Spain is one of the countries with the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the EU-27. Consequently, mitigation strategies need to be reported and quantified to accomplish the goals and requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. In this study, a first estimation of the carbon (C) mitigation potent...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Álvaro-Fuentes, Jorge, Cantero-Martínez, Carlos
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:España
Institución:Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
Repositorio:Repositori Obert UdL
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/46393
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.5424/sjar/2010084-1240
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/46393
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Conventional tillage
Dryland Spain
Greenhouse gas emissions
Emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero
Laboreo convencional
Secano español
Secuestro de carbono orgánico del suelo
No-laboreo
Sòl, Ús agrícola del
Anhídrid carbònic
Descripción
Sumario:Spain is one of the countries with the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the EU-27. Consequently, mitigation strategies need to be reported and quantified to accomplish the goals and requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. In this study, a first estimation of the carbon (C) mitigation potential of tillage reduction in Mediterranean rainfed Spain is presented. Results from eight studies carried out in Spain under rainfed agriculture to investigate the effects of no-tillage (NT) and reduced tillage (RT) compared with conventional tillage (CT) on soil organic carbon (SOC) were used. For current land surface under conservation tillage, NT and RT are sequestering 0.14 and 0.08 Tg C yr-1, respectively. Those rates represent 1.1% and 0.6% of the total CO2 emissions generated from agricultural activities in Spain during 2006. Alternatively, in a hypothetical scenario where all the arable dryland was under either NT or RT management, SOC sequestration would be 2.18 and 0.72 Tg C yr-1 representing 17.4% and 5.8% of the total 2006 CO2 equivalent emissions generated from the agricultural sector in Spain. This is a significant estimate that would help to achieve GHG emissions targets for the current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.