Potential for conservation practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon on croplands and grazing lands – Oregon

Authors: Moore, Jennifer; Manter, Daniel; BROWN, T. - American Farmland Trust; MCCLELLAND, S.C. - Food And Agriculture Organization Of The United Nations-European Commission For The Control Of Foot

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/16/2021
Publication Date: 4/16/2021
Citation: Moore, J.M., Manter, D.K., Brown, T., McClelland, S. 2021. Potential for conservation practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon on croplands and grazing lands – Oregon. Oregon Global Warming Commission; 4/16/2021; Meeting/Virtual Meeting.

Interpretive Summary: Although agriculture currently is a net source of GHG emissions, there are numerous cropland and grazing land management practices that are proven to increase the amount of carbon that plants can capture and ultimately store in the soil through soil carbon sequestration. Collectively, increasing carbon sequestration in soils and reducing N2O emissions are key strategies in addressing climate change. As of 2017, Oregon has about 4.7 million (M) acres of cropland and 9.1 M acres in grazing land. No-till and reduced till are practiced on more than 70% of reported tillable acres and have contributed to increased soil carbon sequestration and help to combat climate change. Getting more acres in no-till, implementing cover cropping and other conservation practices including conservation crop rotation, prescribed grazing, mulching, strip cropping, and replacing synthetic nitrogen with organic nitrogen sources holds great potential for more reductions of greenhouse gases and storing carbon in the soil. The goal of this presentation is to summarize the climate mitigation potential of various cropland conservation practices based on current adoption levels and scenarios of additional practice adoption. In order to evaluate the current and projected GHG mitigation potential we developed the interactive Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation (CaRPE) Tool to quantify and visualize county-level GHG emission reductions resulting from the implementation of a suite of cropland and grazing land management practices.

Technical Abstract: Although agriculture currently is a net source of GHG emissions, there are numerous cropland and grazing land management practices that are proven to increase the amount of carbon that plants can capture and ultimately store in the soil through soil carbon sequestration. Collectively, increasing carbon sequestration in soils and reducing N2O emissions are key strategies in addressing climate change. As of 2017, Oregon has about 4.7 million (M) acres of cropland and 9.1 M acres in grazing land. No-till and reduced till are practiced on more than 70% of reported tillable acres and have contributed to increased soil carbon sequestration and help to combat climate change. Getting more acres in no-till, implementing cover cropping and other conservation practices including conservation crop rotation, prescribed grazing, mulching, strip cropping, and replacing synthetic nitrogen with organic nitrogen sources holds great potential for more reductions of greenhouse gases and storing carbon in the soil. The goal of this presentation is to summarize the climate mitigation potential of various cropland conservation practices based on current adoption levels and scenarios of additional practice adoption. In order to evaluate the current and projected GHG mitigation potential we developed the interactive Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation (CaRPE) Tool to quantify and visualize county-level GHG emission reductions resulting from the implementation of a suite of cropland and grazing land management practices.