Environ Sci Pollut Res
DOI 10.1007/s11356-017-8687-0
REVIEW ARTICLE
Agroforestry: a sustainable environmental practice for carbon
sequestration under the climate change scenarios—a review
Farhat Abbas 1 & Hafiz Mohkum Hammad 2 & Shah Fahad 3 & Artemi Cerdà 4 &
Muhammad Rizwan 1 & Wajid Farhad 5 & Sana Ehsan 1 & Hafiz Faiq Bakhat 2
Received: 16 November 2016 / Accepted: 22 February 2017
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017
Abstract Agroforestry is a sustainable land use system with a
promising potential to sequester atmospheric carbon into soil.
This system of land use distinguishes itself from the other systems, such as sole crop cultivation and afforestation on croplands
only through its potential to sequester higher amounts of carbon
(in the above- and belowground tree biomass) than the aforementioned two systems. According to Kyoto protocol, agroforestry is
recognized as an afforestation activity that, in addition to sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2) to soil, conserves biodiversity, protects cropland, works as a windbreak, and provides food and feed
to human and livestock, pollen for honey bees, wood for fuel,
and timber for shelters construction. Agroforestry is more attractive as a land use practice for the farming community worldwide
instead of cropland and forestland management systems. This
practice is a win–win situation for the farming community and
for the environmental sustainability. This review presents agroforestry potential to counter the increasing concentration of
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
* Farhat Abbas
farhat@gcuf.edu.pk
* Shah Fahad
fahad80@yahoo.com; shah.fahad@mail.hzau.edu.cn
1
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering,
Government College University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
2
Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology, Vehari 61100, Pakistan
3
College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural
University, Wuhan, Hubei, China
4
Departament de Geografia, Universitat de València, Blasco Ibàñez,
28, 46010 Valencia, Spain
5
Department of Agronomy, Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water
and Marine Sciences, Uthal 90150, Pakistan
atmospheric CO2 by sequestering it in above- and belowground
biomass. The role of agroforestry in climate change mitigation
worldwide might be recognized to its full potential by overcoming various financial, technical, and institutional barriers. Carbon
sequestration in soil by various agricultural systems can be simulated by various models but literature lacks reports on validated
models to quantify the agroforestry potential for carbon
sequestration.
Keywords Climate variability . Environmental
sustainability . Forest . Land use management . Model . Soil
Background
An agroforestry system
Growing of trees in combination with other field agricultural
activities, such as cultivation of crops and rearing of animals,
can typically be termed as an agroforestry system.
Agroforestry practices on agricultural land make an important
contribution to climate change mitigation, but are not systematically accounted for in either global carbon budgets or national carbon accounting. Agroforestry has traditionally been
important elements of temperate regions around the world.
This practice results in a number of benefits including ensured
food security, enhanced biodiversity, enrichment of an ecosystem with increased resources, and attainment of various environmental targets, e.g., maintaining atmospheric CO2 to certain limits (Ajayi et al. 2011). In addition, the trees just planted
on 3–5% of agricultural lands increase farm productivity, reduce vulnerability to climate change, and decrease greenhouse
gases emission (Possu et al. 2016); hence, the practice has
been regarded as climate-smart agriculture (FAO 2010).
Cumulatively, these benefits provide mitigation strategies to
Environ Sci Pollut Res
global climate change impacts (Schoeneberger et al. 2012;
Cubbage et al. 2013). The main goals of agroforestry system
are increasing the overall productivity and efficiency of a land
use system (Nair 2005). Agroforestry systems have higher
capability to store carbon in above- and belowground as compared to treeless systems (Montagnini and Nair 2004).
Therefore, this system provides a sink for of atmospheric carbon. The trees, especially those with a deep rooting systems,
store a large amount of atmospheric carbon in their biomass
on long-term basis. Furthermore, Steinbeiss et al. (2008) reported that specific functional traits of trees with grassland
species increase carbon uptake into the underground environment through resource partitioning.
Afforestation with crop production can be a strategy to
control carbon fluxes in atmosphere and to mitigate climate
change impacts on ecosystem (Lal 2004a; Fialho and
Zinn 2014; De Moraes Sá et al. 2015; Ono et al. 2015;
Muñoz-Rojas et al. 2015). Agroforestry has gained high attention in most of the developing countries for its potential for
mitigating the climate variability and atmospheric CO2 sequestration (Anderson and Zerriffi 2012). This is because
the climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives are
highly dependent on agroforestry (Matocha et al. 2012;
Stavi and Lal 2013). Therefore, agroforestry can instantaneously help addressing climate and development goals by
Fig. 1 The global carbon cycle with different reservoirs and the
exchange of carbon between the reservoirs. The black arrows show the
natural processes of carbon transfer, while the red arrows show changes
creating Bco-benefits^ such as providing alternate energy
source and maintaining the impact land use change on flora
and fauna of a region (Watson et al. 2000; May et al. 2005;
Pandey 2007; Roshetko et al. 2007; Nair et al. 2009a).
The land use and land cover changes
Land use is exercising various agricultural and nonagricultural (development) practices, whereas the land cover
change increases or decreases of a given type of land use or
land cover. Under this context, soil formation due to changes
in vegetation land cover induced by global climate variations
are at the forefront of environmental discussions (Brevik et al.
2015; Keesstra et al. 2016; Fahad and Bano 2012; Fahad et al.,
2013, 2014a, b, 2015a, b, 2016a, b, c, d). The phenomena of
geochemical and biological cycles and their impact on the
resources, goods, and services the soils and the vegetation
offer to the societies is important to understand to figure out
the role of a soil system and the carbon cycle (Keesstra et al.
2012; Mol and Keesstra 2012; Decock et al. 2015; Smith et al.
2015; Berendse et al. 2015).
The carbon cycle (Fig. 1) is a key part of the environmental
systems of the soil and the vegetation and their management
that determine the potential use of soil for the land cover
change dynamics of earth system (Gümüs and Şeker 2015;
driven by anthropogenic activities. The values are in units of gigatons of
carbon per year (Bralower and Bice 2016)
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Garcia-Diaz et al. 2016; Mukhopadhyay et al. 2016). The
management of the crop production is a key factor on agriculture and forest lands (Wasak and Drewnik 2015; Musinguzi
et al. 2015; Turgut 2015; Novara et al. 2015) that can determine the carbon cycle and consequently changes related to it
under the scenarios of climate change (Abbasi et al. 2015;
Parras-Alcántara et al. 2015; Peng et al. 2015). The recent
literature reported on the impact of management of the soil
organic matter and the quantification of atmospheric carbon
sequestration (Bruun et al. 2015; De Oliveira et al. 2015;
Behera and Shukla 2015 and references therein).
Greenhouse gases in atmosphere
Gaseous formation of earth’s atmosphere composes major
greenhouse gases (GHGs) including water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (NO), and ozone
(O3) in addition to traces of other minor GHGs (Hussain et al.
2014). In the earth’s atmosphere, CO2 is among major GHGs.
Atmospheric presence of GHGs governs average ambient air
temperature, i.e., −18 °C in absence of GHGs and 15 °C in
presence of GHGs (Ming et al. 2014). The earth’s climate is
changing in direct response to anthropogenic GHGs emission
as manifested by increase in the global average temperatures,
rise of the sea levels, and melting of snow glaciers
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007a;
Achard et al. 2014; Liu et al. 2014; Anaya-Romero et al.
2015). The buildup of GHGs including CO2 in the atmosphere
is the major cause of global climate change.
The global food production is estimated to contribute at the
minimum of one third of all global anthropogenic GHGs emissions, more than twice than that of the transport sector (IPCC
2007b; Scialabba and Muller-Lindenlauf 2010). Agriculture
alone contributes between 10 and 25% of annual GHGs, both
directly and indirectly, through land use changes, land
management, and production practices (Scialabba and
Muller-Lindenlauf 2010; Smith et al. 2007). The atmospheric
concentration of CO2 and other GHGs has also been increased
since the industrial revolution (Cerdà et al. 2010). Though not all
of released CO2 is stored in the earth’s atmosphere, considerable
quantities are sequestered by land-based sinks, i.e., nearly 27.5%
of CO2 productions by anthropogenic activities are taken up and
recycled (Peters et al. 2012). Recent reports from the IPCC propose that even if substantial reductions in anthropogenic carbon
emissions are achieved in the near future, efforts to sequester
previously emitted carbon will be necessary to ensure safe levels
of atmospheric carbon and to mitigate impact of climate change
(Smith et al. 2014). Carbon dioxide production in the air is believed to be enhanced by anthropogenic activities especially due
to deforestation and burning of fossil fuels. Increased atmospheric CO2 is considered to be the predominant reason of global
climatic variability (IPCC 2007b). Furthermore, atmospheric
CO2 have touched to 400 ppm (Le Quéré et al. 2015) and is
predicted to reach between 700 to 900 ppm (Watson-Lazowski
et al. 2016). Limiting of atmospheric CO2 concentration is possible through forest restoration and agroforestry (Montagnini and
Nair 2004). There is a growing interest to identify the role of
various land use systems contribution in stabilizing the atmospheric CO2 and decreasing its emissions (Murthy et al. 2013).
It is anticipated that agricultural practices could modulate the
increasing CO2 levels by carbon sequestration. Similarly, substitute agricultural practices not only sequester carbon but also can
substitute fossil fuel consumption with biomass production.
Agroforestry systems store carbon in biomass and sequester
CO2 by photosynthetic processes (David and Crane 2002;
Benites et al. 1999). Additionally, several studies have demonstrated that degraded land quality could be restored by adopting
agroforestry system (Shazana et al. 2013; Novara et al. 2013;
Tesfaye et al. 2014). Therefore, proper management of agroforestry land use systems can act as a vital option in decreasing
atmospheric CO2 (Post and Kwon 2000). This system have substantially changed the land use from lone crop cultivation to
adding trees and sequestering carbon in above- and belowground
biomass and have fascinated the environmentalists of both developed and developing countries (IPCC 2000a; Makundi and
Sathaye 2004; Takimoto et al. 2008; Gutierrez et al. 2009; Nair
2012; Poeplau and Don 2013). Therefore, agroforestry offers
great potential for sequestering carbon and producing biomass
for biofuels like many other land use systems (Jose and Bardhan
2012). As these have ability to capture a significant amount of
atmospheric CO2 and accumulate the carbon in soil and plants.
Although agroforestry systems are not primarily designed as a
solution to decrease atmospheric CO2 yet it can play a major role
in capturing or storing carbon in above and belowground biomass (Sathaye et al. 2001).
An agroforestry approach
Field- and home-based approaches
Agroforestry is defined as a land use system in which trees
deliver biomass and environmental services. In these arrangements, various cropping systems are merged with tree plantation in the same locality for a positive change in environment
and net economic returns for the farmers (Otegbeye 2002).
Alao and Shuaibu (2013) defined agroforestry system as a
unique arrangement of trees, crops, and animals in space and
time. Agroforestry is recognized as an afforestation activity
for GHGs mitigation under the Kyoto Protocol (Nair et al.
2009b). Cultivation of crops along with tree plantation in agricultural fields recovers soil fertility, prevents soil erosion,
regulates water infiltration, reduces pressure on forests for
fuel, and produces forage for animals (Makundi and Sathaye
2004; Yu and Jia 2014). These land use systems also maintain
several other ecosystem services such as increasing, species
Environ Sci Pollut Res
diversity, carbon sequestration, improving soil and ecosystem
health and reducing emissions of CO2 (Nair et al. 2010;
Garrity et al. 2010; Hu et al. 2015; Thakur et al. 2015).
Agroforestry reduces the water losses by drainage and
evaporation from soil surface and improves water use efficiency (Bayala and Wallace 2015). Rockström (1997) estimated
that approximately 40% of the rainfall water in water harvesting systems was lost as evaporation while drainage caused
33–40% water losses, with only 6–16% being used by crop.
Therefore, planting trees can reduce high percentages of available water lost as evaporation and drainage (Ong et al. 2006).
The additional benefit of planting trees with crops is that trees
do not compete with crops for the water recourses as the trees
mainly absorb water beneath the root zone of crop plants
below the surface soil. In arid regions, the field crop roots
benefit from the soil moisture present in the rhizosphere due
to hydraulic lift of water by trees (Burgess et al. 1998; Jackson
et al. 2000; Hultine et al. 2003; Hao et al. 2009).
change from forest to cropland caused carbon losses from
the soil but conversion of forest to pastures land might increase the net carbon in the soil due to high carbon and nitrogen stocks, higher soil microbial biomass and lower respiratory quotient results in net carbon sequestration in the soil.
The establishment of agroforestry as home garden and coffee production on agriculture land caused SOC stocks to rebound to near forest levels. On the other hands, planting mango and coconut trees increased SOC stocks slightly above the
agriculture SOC stocks. The authors have found a strong correlation between tree species diversity in home garden and
coffee agroforestry and SOC stocks (Cadotte 2013).
Therefore, judicious use of agroforestry practices should be
made to enhance the system use efficiency for agricultural
productivity on sustainable basis in combination with meeting
other societal needs from forestry (Fagbemi 2002). This is a
win–win situation both in terms of meeting human demand as
well as environment sustainability for longer period of time
(Alao and Shuaibu 2013).
Agroforestry and soil organic carbon stocks
Atmospheric carbon sequestration
Several farmers in developing countries practice agroforestry
and economically benefit from it (Sarkhot et al. 2007).
Although several researchers reported that agroforestry land
use systems have a higher capability to sequester CO2 than
croplands, but it greatly depends on the environment of the
area, biological, physical, and socioeconomic features of the
land use system (Sanchez 2000; Sharrow and Ismail 2004;
Nair and Nair 2014). Hombegowda et al. (2016) studied the
effect of four land use systems: a natural forest, agriculture,
and two agroforestry types of two ages (30–60 and >60 years)
on carbon stocks in soils. The conversion of forest land use to
agricultural system resulted in huge losses (50–61%) of original soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in the top soil (Straaten
et al. 2015). In addition to land use system, soil type can also
change the SOC losses when forest land use is changed to
agriculture land use (McDonagh et al. 2001; Birch-Thomsen
et al. 2007). A detailed study conducted by Muñoz-Rojas et al.
(2015) they evaluated the transformation of land use and land
cover changes between 1956 and 2007 in Andalusia, containing the data of 1357 soil profiles. Land use changes resulted in
SOC losses, specifically in Cambisols, Luvisols, and
Vertisols, with the total loss of 16.8 Tg (approximately
0.33 Tg year−1). The area where forest plantation was done,
increased SOC in the topsoil and it contributed 862 Mg ha−1
of SOC stocks (25%) (Muñoz-Rojas et al. 2015). Cultivation
of the Vertisol for 20 years resulted in 40% lower SOC content
in comparison to area under forest land use and during this
time about 95% of the forest originated SOC was lost in area
under cultivation. In contrast, Ultisol cultivation resulted only
20% lower SOC than soil under forest land use and only 30%
of the forest originated SOC was lost (Bruun et al. 2015).
However, Ferreira et al. (2016) demonstrated that land use
Carbon is present in various forms in different parts of the
Earth. In the atmosphere carbon present as CO2 converted into
various organic compounds through photosynthesis. The photosynthetically metabolized CO2 is converted back in to CO2
through respiration. Some of the carbon from the atmosphere
is absorbed by the ocean that subsequently is converted into
sedimentary rocks, and much later, this carbon may be released to the atmosphere. So carbon moves around, it flows
from place to place and circulates among various components
in the cycle as shown in Fig. 1. The continued buildup of
atmospheric CO2 over the last century with projected rise in
near future (Paustian et al. 2000) has raised serious concern
among the environmentalists. The increased CO2 in the atmosphere have some benefits as it serves as a stimulant to improve plants growth and productivity (Schaffer et al. 1997;
Keutgen and Chen 2001). However, climate extremes including rising temperatures and uneven distribution of rainfall are
also associated with an increased concentration of atmospheric CO2 (USDA NRCS 2000; Abbas 2013; Abbas et al. 2014).
A rich literature has been produced on carbon sequestration
especially during the last two decades. However, significant
differences exist among individuals about the role of increasing concentration of atmospheric CO2 and the related pros and
cons to the ecosystem. Persistent increase of carbon storage in
soil and plant material and in the sea is termed as carbon
sequestration (Hutchinson et al. 2007; Pandey et al. 2016).
According to United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, carbon sequestration is the secure storage
of CO2 in soil and plant. It depends on the metabolic conversion of CO2 into long-lived, carbon containing materials
(through photosynthesis), a process that is called
Environ Sci Pollut Res
bio-sequestration (DOE/SC-108, US Department of Energy
2008). Carbon sequestration is successful when carbon storage resulting from land management and/or conservation
practices exceeds carbon losses (IPCC 2007a; Smith et al.
2014). Carbon sequestration is possible through a range of
processes, occurring naturally in plants and soils. Recently,
carbon sequestration and decreased emissions from
circumvented deforestation have received more attention as
a method to reduce the buildup of GHGs in the earth atmosphere (Sedjo and Brent 2012). Carbon sequestration happens in
two main segments of agroforestry systems: belowground and
aboveground. The aboveground segment is described as specific
plant components (such as stem and leaves of herbaceous plants
and trees), while the belowground segment contains roots and
soil microorganisms, and soil organic carbon present in different
soil horizons. Due to net positive contribution of agroforestry to
climate change system, the system has become habitual for the
term carbon sequestration. The belowground biomass carbon is
more stabilized in the soil due to its interactions with soil particles
(Rasse et al. 2005) and its slow decomposition rate in comparison
to above ground biomass (Cusack et al. 2009). As Scheu and
Schauermann (1994) reported that relative contribution of belowground biomass by Fagus sylvatica L. to SOC was 1.55 times
higher than that above ground biomass (Johnson et al. 2006).
Researchers have demonstrated that carbon sequestration
to stabilize SOC in urban and agricultural soils is one of numerous options to reduce the atmospheric concentration of
CO2 (Bruce et al. 1999; Pouyat et al. 2002; Leified 2006;
Pataki et al. 2006; Pickett et al. 2008; Blanco-Canqui and
Lal 2008). Additionally, SOC is due to historic buildup of
humus in the soil. When soil humus reaches a point of stability, it results in long-term storage of carbon in soil (Whitehead
and Tinsley 2006). If soil remains undisturbed, soil humus can
retain carbon for an average lifetime of hundreds to thousands
of years (Holmén 2000).
Carbon sequestration through agroforestry depends on
cropping systems that define land cover change (Thevathasan
and Gordon 2004; Steinbeiss et al. 2008). Agriculture-based land
use changes contribute approximately 20% of the total CO2 sequestration by anthropogenic sources (Dumanski and Lal 2004).
The top 30 cm of soil layer has average SOC value reaching
approximately 15 Mg ha−1; however, during cultivation, about
50–75% of this carbon is released to the atmosphere within the
first 20 years in the tropical regions and 20–30% in temperate
regions (De Blécourt et al. 2013; Chiti et al. 2014). Nevertheless,
by adopting soil conservation practices on arable soils, considerable amount of this carbon can be prevented from emission
through soils. A huge carbon sequestration potential by major
croplands has been estimated by Dumanski and Lal (2004) as
shown in Table 1.
Montagnini and Nair (2004) reported that the agroforestry
land use systems with higher net primary carbon assimilation
treeless land use system returned a greater portion of plant
Table 1 Possibilities of world’s major croplands for carbon
sequestration (Dumanski and Lal (2004)
Carbon sequester potential Tg carbon year−1 Reduction emission (%)
USA
75–208
Canada
24
24
10
European Union
China
90–120
105–198
–
–
India
39–49
47
biomass back to the soil and it had the greater potential to
increase soil organic carbon. In addition, agroforestry systems
have a higher ability to store carbon than field crops and
grasslands (Kirby and Potvin 2007). Moreover, tree, shrub,
and pastures residues in agroforestry systems increase SOC
(Abbasi et al. 2015). Agroforestry also offers a great scope of
economic development of rural people.
Mitigation of climate change impacts
through agroforestry
Carbon sequestration by agroforestry practices has been considered beneficial in climate change impact mitigation.
Agroforestry has diverse advantages such as the plants provide a considerable sink for atmospheric carbon due to their
high growth rate and quick biomass productivity. The trees in
agricultural land use systems can enhance the carbon sequestered in farm soils reserved to agriculture, while simultaneously allowing for the growing of food crops (Kursten 2000).
Soils act as a sink to store carbon from the atmosphere for
longer period of time. Based on historic global estimates carbon
stocks and emissions, soil provides a useful carbon sink for necessary solution to environmental problems (Lal 2004c, 2008).
Since agriculture occupies over one third of arable land globally
(World Bank 2015); therefore, agroforestry presents a great potential for increased sequestration of carbon in agricultural lands.
Planting trees with nitrogen fixing capability may also increase biomass production. Since the sequestered carbon and
nitrogen in soils has complex interaction. Study conducted in
Malawi and Zambia showed that cultivating maize with
Gliricida—a nitrogen fixing trees—has 42% higher yields
than non-fertilized fields and similar to fields receiving
92 kg N ha−1 (Sileshi et al. 2012). Moreover, integrating
Gliricidia trees during fallow periods between crops resulted
in 55% increase in sorghum productivity (Hall et al. 2005).
However, strategies must focus on synchronizing legume tress
with crop nitrogen demand to regulate gaseous and leaching
losses of N from the soil (Rosenstock et al. 2014). A study is
needed to further investigate interactions of SOC with various
forms of nitrogen produced during its mineralization and immobilization under agroforestry systems (Nair et al. 2009a;
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Gärdenäs et al. 2011). Among the other reasons, positive effect of trees on SOC sequestration may become obvious due
to modifications in belowground C stocks (Laganière et al.
2010). The higher SOC sequestration potential under agroforestry may be reflected by higher amount of SOC in deeper
mineral soil layers in comparison to fields with only crop
cultivation (Nepstad et al. 1994; Jobbágy and Jackson
2000). Furthermore, the tree species modify the microbial
community structure and diversity in soil that may also enhance soil carbon sequestration. However, detailed investigations are needed to further elaborate the mechanisms associated with SOC sequestration in managed agroforestry systems. Because some of the planted tree species may have
negative impacts on crops due competition for water
(Burgess et al. 1998), more negative effects may arise due to
allelochemicals (Jose et al. 2004; Inderjit 2002). Most of the
tropical agroforestry have negative allelopathic effects on food
and fodder crops and vice versa may also occur. Therefore,
species mixtures with no or positive allelopathic effects on the
companion crops must be created in agroforestry systems
(Rizvi et al. 1999).
Estimation of carbon sequestration in agroforestry system
Some efforts have been carried out to evaluate the global potential of agroforestry systems as a sink for carbon. Approximately,
Table 2 Total biomass carbon on
agricultural land (in PgC, and as a
percentage of the total biomass
carbon from 2000 and 2010)
globally, and the contribution by
trees to biomass carbon on
agricultural land
Region
a carbon sequestration potential of 391,000 MgC year−1 by 2010
and 586,000 MgC year−1 by 2040 by converting 630 million ha
of unproductive croplands into agroforestry land use system have
been estimated for 50-year period with its calculated range between 1.13 and 2.24 PgC year−1 globally (Jose 2009; Dixon
1995). A comprehensive study has been conducted by Zomer
et al. (2016) in which they have estimated the contribution of
agroforestry in carbon sequestration at global, regional and at
country level negated by IPCC for estimating carbon biomass
in agricultural systems (Table 2). According to IPCC estimates
total biomass carbon through tree distribution on agricultural land
broadly followed bioclimatic zones (Fig. 2) and the high tree
cover (>45%) was found in the humid regions (Zomer et al.
2016). Overall, the amount of area classed as agricultural is the
globally the carbon stored in above- and belowground biomass is
11.1 PgC in agricultural lands, when agricultural area is ~22.2
million km2 (Bartholomé and Belward 2005). However, when
tree in agro systems are considered in carbon storage the agricultural land has four times higher values (45.30 PgC) than the
default values estimated by IPCC (Zomer et al. 2016). In addition, the authors has also found that there was 2% an additional
increase tree cover between 2000 and 2010, resulting in an increase of >2 PgC (or 4.6%) biomass carbon (Fig. 3).
The carbon sequestration capacity differs across the geography of the area and plant species used in agroforestry system
(Newaj and Dhyani 2008). However, evidence shows that
Total biomass carbon on agriculture land
PgC
Total agricultural area (km2)
Increase/ Decrease
as % of total C
2000
2010
Australia/Pacific
Central America
Central Asia
East Asia
Eastern and Southern Africa
Europe
North Africa
North America
2.11
1.42
0.48
2.37
2.31
2.13
0.11
3.31
2.28
1.52
0.47
2.53
2.30
2.15
0.11
3.40
8.06
6.45
−1.04
6.95
−0.17
0.96
−0.01
2.68
790,658
269,235
830,949
1,795,893
1,573,527
2,299,766
155,948
2,073,033
Russia
South America
South Asia
South East Asia
West and Central Africa
Western Asia
Global
Agricultural Baseline
Contribution by Trees
1.07
11.34
2.30
10.03
5.57
0.75
45.30
11.08
34.22
1.07
12.13
2.48
10.69
5.45
0.79
47.37
11.08
36.29
0.02
6.95
7.85
6.59
−2.18
4.72
4.57
1,669,166
3,888,792
1,827,025
1,648,268
2,390,980
955,689
22,168,929
Source: Zomer et al. 2016
4.57
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Fig. 2 Global map of average biomass carbon per hectare on agricultural land in 2000 and 2010 (t C per ha). Source Zomer et al. 2016
agroforestry land use can act as both source and sink of carbon in
the environment (Montagnini and Nair 2004; Ajayi et al. 2011).
For example, agrisilvicultural systems in which crops and trees
are cultivated together act as net sinks of CO2 while agro
silvipastoral systems are possible net sources of greenhouse gases
(Montagnini and Nair 2004). In contrast, Mangalassery et al.
(2014) reported that silvipastoral system sequestered 36–60%
higher CO2 compared to the tree system and 27–71% more in
comparison to the grasslands. Silvipastoral system involving
trees and grasses sequestered more soil organic carbon compared
with only trees or pasture containing systems. Carbon sequestering potential of different agroforestry systems varies depending
on species composition, soil and climate. Similarly, tropical regions have higher vegetation carbon sequestration potential than
temperate agroforestry regions. The sequestered carbon in the
above- and belowground biomass is highly variable of an agroforestry system and is usually much higher than treeless land use
system (Nair et al. 2009a; Fialho and Zinn 2014). Potential for
sequestering carbon in aboveground components of agroforestry
systems is estimated to be 2.1 × 109 MgC year−1 in tropical and
1.9 × 109 MgC year−1 in temperate biomes (Oelbermann et al.
2004). The IPCC report suggest that even after achieving global
targets of carbon sequestration, efforts to sequester previously
emitted carbon will remain necessary to achieve safe levels of
atmospheric concentration of carbon for mitigating climate
change impacts (Smith et al. 2014).
Higher soil organic carbon (SOC) in agroforestry land use
systems can be particularly obtained by enhancing the amount
of carbon returned to the soil and by strengthening soil organic
matter (Lal 2005; Sollins et al. 2007). Agroforestry land use
systems can also be managed by increasing SOC reservoir in
the soil through avoiding burning and minimizing soil disturbance by minimum or zero tillage practices and by erosion
control (Soto-Pinto et al. 2010). As Sá et al. (2015) compared
the tillage system in relation to SOC losses and concluded that
no-till systems have a large potential to decrease soil degradation and SOC decline in comparison to conventional tillage
systems.
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Fig. 3 Global map in average biomass carbon from 2000 and 2010 per hectare on agricultural land (t C per ha). Source Zomer et al. 2016
Soil organic carbon pools do not only reduce the net CO2 in
the atmosphere but also play an important role in maintaining
soil productivity by improving nitrogen (N) cycling in soil–
plant systems (Yu and Jia 2014; Abbasi et al. 2015). For every
Mg increase in profile SOC stock, an increase yield of 0.17
(pearl millet), 0.14 (cluster bean), and 0.15 (castor)
Mg ha−1 year−1 were observed (Srinivasarao et al. 2014).
Soil organic carbon is reliable and field-based soil quality
indicator for assessing yield (Carter et al. 2003; Lal 2006).
In addition, researchers reported that trading sequestered carbon was a viable economic opportunity for practitioners of
agroforestry for the subsistence farmers in low-income countries (Nair et al. 2010). While agroforestry is documented as
having the greatest capability for carbon sequestration, IPCC
(2000b) examined land uses as described in Table 3.
Table 3
Potential of carbon sequestration by 2040
Sources
Mt C year−1
Water land restoration
Restoration of degraded land
Agroforestry
Forest management
Grazing management
Rice management
Crop land management
20
50
600
250
375
20
150
Terrestrial biosphere plays an important role in global carbon cycle; the environmental changes are continuously changing global terrestrial carbon uptake. Carbon is continually being cycled between different pools such as soil, atmosphere,
and oceans. In fact, the total amount of carbon remains constant while increased amount of carbon into a pool is balanced
by an addition of equal amount of carbon into another pool.
Carbon budget is actually a list of all transformations and
changes occurring in various pools in which carbon is stored.
Presently, a budget of the earth’s carbon cycle shows an imbalance among of various carbon pools that is mainly caused
by burning of fossil fuel and change in land use system.
Resultantly, CO2 is building up in atmosphere. According to
the global carbon budget report of 2015 (Fig. 4), during the
year 1870 to 2014, burning of fossil fuel and land use change
added 1465 and 549.6 Gt of CO2 in atmosphere, respectively,
while 545 ± 55 Gt of this added CO2 is recycled by atmosphere (230 ± 5 Gt), ocean (155 ± 20 Gt), and the land
(160 ± 60 Gt) (Le Quéré et al. 2015).
Globally, the soils store 2500 billion tons of carbon. It is
more than that is stored in atmosphere (780 billion tons) and
plants (560 billion tons). Approximately 5000–10,000 billion
tons of carbon is stored by fossil fuels originated from fossilized
plants and animals store (Le Quéré et al. 2015). Plant functioning in terms of photosynthesis stabilizes atmospheric CO2 and
releases the oxygen to the atmosphere. Almost 40% of the
photosynthetically stabilized CO2 is released by plant in the
form of roots exudates that provide food to soil microbes. The
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Fig. 4 Global average carbon budget (Gt CO2 per year) for the decade 2005–2014 (Le Quéré et al. 2015) design by GBP
soil microbes depend on these root exudates and convert simpler organic compounds into complex, stable forms of soil carbon, such as humus (Ahmad et al. 2009: Le Quéré et al. 2015).
Carbon sequestration in above- and belowground biomass
The concept of the carbon sequestration contains ambiguity particularly with the concept of Blong-lived^ pools. In agroforestry
systems, carbon stocks are represented as synonym to carbon
sequestration. The carbon sequestration determinations are simple mathematical calculations, in which aboveground biomass is
assessed from general allometric equations while, belowground
biomass is usually 30% of aboveground biomass, whereas 50%
of the total plant biomass is considered as carbon stock or sequestered carbon. Complex mixtures of agricultural crops and
trees are widely used for estimating aboveground carbon sequestration potential. Carbon constitutes almost 45 to 50% of
stem/branches biomass and 30% of foliage dry weight
(Shepherd and Montagnini 2001; Schroth et al. 2002). The carbon sequestration in soils differs extensively by depending on the
agroforestry system. However, in this regard, the literature, for
instance, Oelbermann et al. (2006), Amézquita et al. (2005), and
Nair et al. (2009b), reported that SOC pools range from
1.3 MgC ha−1 in the top 40 cm to 173 MgC ha−1 in the top
100 cm of soil layer with 13-year-old alley cropping practices
in southern Canada and 10- to 16-year-old silvopastoral systems
at the Atlantic Coast of Costa Rica, respectively. Soil carbon
stocks in croplands and forests under slash-and-burn systems
showed that intensive cropping with short-term fallow systems
in sub-humid tropics have relatively lesser carbon sequestration
potential than slash-and-burn systems of the humid region of
Brazil (Mutuo et al. 2005). Additionally, physical and biotic factors, as well as on management practices determine the carbon
sequestration capacity.
Modeling the carbon sequestration
Model is a representation of system that allows investigation
of properties of the system and prediction of future outcomes
of real systems. Models are used in a variety of scientific
Environ Sci Pollut Res
disciplines ranging from physics and chemistry to ecology and
the Earth sciences. Models are also used in food production
systems support the farmers in planning day-to-day crop management practices on farms, guiding the ways to alleviate rural
poverty, and predicting the effects of climate variability on
food security issues (Thornton et al. 1997; Hochman et al.
2009; Webber et al. 2014). Models are helpful regarding strategic decisions and can simulate the productivity of farms and
food system in various environmental conditions (Holzworth
et al. 2014). Numerous models can be used to simulate the
potential of SOC sequestration (Rickman et al. 2001; Verburg
et al. 2002; Smith et al. 1993, 2008; Verburg and Overmars
2009; Debolini et al. 2015). Changes in the SOC pool can be
measured on small scale and on large regional scales. For a
small (plot) scale (Bruce et al. 1999), the direct measurement
is an efficient technique (Qian et al. 2003). For large (regional)
scales measurements, mathematical models of SOC have been
established and extensively used to study SOC dynamics
worldwide (Post et al. 2004; Qian et al. 2003; Smith et al.
2008). Models have been used to evaluate the effect of
management practices on the changes in the SOC pool
(Blanco-Canqui and Lal 2004; Bruce et al. 1999; Lal 2004b).
The RothC (Rothamsted model) and CENTURY models
are the most commonly used as tool for simulation of soil
carbon (Coleman and Jenkinson 1996). The RothC model
application is based on the long-term trials conducted on
Rothamsted research station to study the cycling of organic
matter in soil. Although the assumptions or variables of the
models are simple, the models cannot appropriately and accurately predict the carbon cycling in tropical agroforestry systems. The CENTURY model is used for the cycling of carbon
and its interaction with plant species and management practices such as tillage and agricultural system. Several models in
agroforestry have been used including; SCUAF, HyPAR,
Hi-SAFE/Yield-SAFE and WaNuLCAS; however, their use
has remained limited due to inflexibility, restricted capacity
to simulate various interactions and lack of model calibration
in different scenarios (Luedeling et al. 2016).
To expand the applicability of this model for estimating
carbon sequestration at global scale, it must also consider the
agroforestry during the prediction of carbon cycling in the
system. Several scientific models have been developed to
forecast the response of soil organic carbon. There are some
complications in obtaining information which are necessary
for the models (Nair et al. 2010). These complications reduce
applicability of these models to integrate agroforestry system.
Few attempts have been made to integrate agroforestry
systems into existing models or models that have been developed with agroforestry in target. For example, Palma et al.
(2007) modeled silvoarble agroforestry in Europe, Negash
and Kanninen (2015) used the CO2FIX model to predict soil
carbon sequestration, and Francaviglia et al. (2012) used the
RothC model to simulate an agro-silvopastoral system. Palma
et al. (2007) used nitrogen leaching, soil erosion, landscape
biodiversity, and carbon sequestration as indicators that are
assessed using Yield-SAFE (from BYield Estimator for Long
term Design of Silvoarable AgroForestry in Europe^) while
soil erosion was simulated using the revised universal soil loss
equation (Renard et al. 1997). In Ethiopia, the CO2FIX model
was used to predict the effects of three agroforestry systems on
organic carbon pools in soil. Model validated that long-term
(10–40 years) carbon sequestration was in the range of measured biomass for two agroforestry system (Enset-tree and
Enset-coffee-tree systems), but significantly differed for the
tree-coffee system (Negash and Kanninen 2015). The authors
concluded that the prediction of the biomass carbon stocks
could be improved by having more accurate input parameters
for the model. Basic problem in application of existing modeling framework and sub-models in agroforestry system is the
complexity of simulating tree growth for different tree species.
The existing models have deficiency to simulate developing
foliage, wood, branches, and roots. Modifications in the
existing models are necessary to make them compatible with
crop growth models (Pinkard et al. 2010; Almeida et al. 2010;
Ghezehei et al. 2015). For instance, some tree models are not
able to simulate at a daily time step basis. Notable exceptions
are present in tree sub-models such as in APSIM, CABALA
and 3PG. Therefore, a rapid progress in reliable modeling and
its calibration for tree and crop agroforestry systems are needed for evaluating and predicting future outcomes of site specific agroforestry systems potential to sequester carbon under
changing climate.
Conclusions
The evidences suggest that conversion of forest to agriculture
land use results in land degradation with huge losses of soil
organic carbon stocks. Cultivation of land releases about 20–
70% of the stored carbon within two decades depending on
the climatic conditions. Resultantly, CO2 is building up in
atmosphere. Agroforestry systems retain much higher quantities of carbon in above and belowground biomass in comparison to crop and grazing land use systems. At global scale, 630
million ha of unproductive croplands could be used for agroforestry as part of an ecological engineering practice to potentially sequester 586,000 MgC year−1 by 2040. Moreover, in
current global and national carbon monitoring protocols, there
is a need to incorporate agroforestry in carbon stocks to precisely estimate the contribution of this neglected pool. To simulate the potential of agroforestry systems in sequestering carbon new models are needed that can precisely predict net
uptake of atmospheric CO2 compared to treeless systems especially under the IPCC scenarios of projected global climate
change.
Environ Sci Pollut Res
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