Assessing the net climate benefits of improved grazing intensity in global rangelands
Abstract
Improved rangeland grazing could mitigate climate change through carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) sequestration in soils and vegetation. However, altering grazing practices to increase ecosystem carbon storage may also decrease livestock production and/or increase greenhouse gas emissions through the supply chain, such that the net emissions impacts remain unclear. Here, we assess the global net mitigation potential of improving grazing intensity by quantifying potential CO 2 sequestration alongside systems-level impacts of plant productivity changes, livestock emissions, feed requirements, and production constraints. Improving grazing intensity in global rangelands could sequester 2.2 ± 0.43 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt/CO 2 eq) per year in the near term, but maintaining livestock production through supplemental feeding would reduce net mitigation by 2 to 31% (to 1.8 ± 0.45 GT/CO 2 eq per year). Our results suggest that neglecting systems-level emissions impacts may substantially overestimate the global climate benefits of improved grazing.
Article Details
Journal Info
Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Authors (18)
Robert S. Powell
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Steven J. Davis
David G. Encarnation
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Johannes Piipponen
Jinfeng Chang
State Key Laboratory of Soil Pollution Control and Safety, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Courtney M. Currier
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Karl-Heinz Erb
Institute of Social Ecology Vienna, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
Samuel Eze
Department of Agriculture and Environment, Harper Adams University, Newport, UK.
Chaopeng Hong
Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, China.
Pierre Ploton
AMAP Univ Montpellier, IRD, CNRS, INRAE, CIRAD, Montpellier, France.
Shuai Ren
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Pete Smith
Jishuai Su
College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei, China.
Giuseppe Tempio
Animal Production and Health Division (NSA), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy,
Cesar Terrer
Institute of Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.
Dominik Wisser
Animal Production and Health Division (NSA), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy,
Fengwei Xu
Institute of Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.
Adam F. A. Pellegrini
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.