Abstract
Soils act as a major sink and source of atmospheric CO2 and therefore have a huge role to play in the carbon capture and storage (CCS) activity. The soils capture and store both organic (through photosynthesis of plants and then top soils as decomposed plant materials and roots) and inorganic carbon (through the formation of pedogenic calcium carbonates). The sequestration of organic and inorganic carbon in soils and its follow-up require basic information of CCS in the soils and their appropriate management techniques. The most prudent approach to estimate the role of soils as source and sink for carbon should require information on the spatial distribution of soil type, soil carbon (soil organic carbon, SOC and soil inorganic carbon, SIC) and the bulk density (BD). To estimate the CCS of soils in spatial domains, we have used the agroclimatic zones (ACZs), bioclimatic systems (BCS) of India and the agro-ecosubregions (AESRs) maps as base maps. These three approaches of land area delineations have been used for various purposes at the national and regional-level planning. We have shown the utility of these maps for prioritizing areas for C sequestration in soils through a set of thematic maps on carbon stock. It will make a dataset for developmental programmes at regional as well as national levels, to address the role of soils in capturing and storing elevated atmospheric CO2 due to global climate change.
K.L Sahrawat—Deceased.
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Abbreviations
- SOC:
-
Soil organic carbon
- SIC:
-
Soil inorganic carbon
- BD:
-
Bulk density
- ACZs:
-
Agro-climatic zones
- BCS:
-
Bioclimatic systems
- AESRs:
-
Agro-eco-sub-regions
- SAT:
-
Semi-arid tropical
- Pg C:
-
Peta gram carbon
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Bhattacharyya, T., Wani, S.P., Pal, D.K., Sahrawat, K.L. (2017). Soil as Source and Sink for Atmospheric CO2 . In: Goel, M., Sudhakar, M. (eds) Carbon Utilization. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3352-0_4
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