Abstract
The prominent role of forestry and agroforestry systems in the flux and long-term storage of carbon (C) in the terrestrial biosphere has increased global interest in these land-use options to stabilize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Preliminary assessments suggest that some agroforestry systems (e.g., agrosilvicultural) can be CO2 sinks and temporarily store C, while other systems (e.g., ruminant-based silvopastoral systems) are probably sources of GHG (e.g., CH4).
Agroforestry systems can be significant sources of GHG emissions, especially at low latitudes. Practices such as tillage, burning, manuring, chemical fertilization, and frequent disturbance can lead to emission of CO2, CH4, and N2O from soils and vegetation to the atmosphere. Establishment and management of agroforestry systems incompatible with prevailing edaphic and climatic conditions can accelerate soil GHG emissions. Non-sustainable agroforestry systems are quickly degraded, and woody and herbaceous crops can become significant GHG sources. Silvopastoral systems can result in soil compaction and erosion with significant loss of labile C and N compounds to the atmosphere. Ruminant-based silvopastoral systems and rice paddy agrisilvicultural systems are well documented sources of CH4 which significantly contribute to the global CH4 budget.
Early assessments of national and global terrestrial CO2 sinks reveal two primary beneficial attributes of agroforestry systems: 1) direct near-term C storage (decades to centuries) in trees and soils, and, 2) potential to offset immediate GHG emissions associated with deforestation and subsequent shifting agriculture. Within the tropical latitudes, it is estimated that one ha of sustainable agroforestry can provide goods and services which potentially offset 5–20 ha of deforestation. At a global scale, agroforestry systems could potentially be established on 585–1275×106 ha of technically suitable land, and these systems could store 12–228 (median 95) Mg C ha−1 under current climate and edaphic conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andrasko K, Heaton K and Winnett S (1991) Evaluating the costs and efficiency of options to manage global forests: a cost curve approach. In: Howlett D and Sargent C (eds) Proceedings of Technical Workshop to Explore Options for Global Forestry Management IIED, pp 216–233, London, UK
Apps MJ, Kurz WA, Luxmoore RJ Nilsson LL, Sedjo RA, Schmidt R, Simpson LG and Vinson TS (1993) Boreal forests and tundra. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 39–54
Barnwell TO, Jackson RB IV, Elliott ET, Burke IC, Cole CV, Paustian K, Paul EA, Donigian AS, Patwardhan AS, Rowell A and Weinrich K (1992) An approach to assessment of management impacts on agricultural carbon. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 64: 423–435
Barrett-Lennard EG, Malcom CV, Stern WR and Wilkins SM (eds) (1986) Forage and Fuel Production from Salt Affected Wasteland. Elsevier Science Publishing, New York, 459 pp
Birdsey RA, Plantiga AJ and Heath LS (1993) Past and prospective carbon storage in United States forests. Forest Ecology and Management 58: 33–40
Boonkird SA, Fernandes ECM and Nair PKR (1984) Forest villages: an agroforestry approach to rehabilitating forest land degraded by shifting cultivation in Thailand. Agroforestry Systems 2: 87–102
Bouwman AF (ed) (1989) Soils and the Greenhouse Effect. Wiley, New York
Brown S, Hall CAS, Knabe W, Raich J, Trexler MC and Woomer P (1993) Tropical forests: their past, present and potential future role in the terrestrial carbon budget. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 71–94
Burley J and Stewart J (1985) Increasing Productivity of Multipurpose Trees. International Union of Forest Research Organizations, Vienna, Austria, 560 pp
Cole CV, Flach K, Lee J, Sauerbeck D and Stewart B (1993) Agricultural sources and sinks of carbon. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 111–122
Cramer WP and Solomon AM (1993) Climatic classification and future global redistribution of agricultural land. Climate Research 3: 97–110
Dixon RK and Turner DP (1991) The global carbon cycle and climate change: responses and feedbacks from belowground systems. Environmental Pollution 73: 245–262
Dixon RK, Andrasko KJ, Sussman FA, Lavinson MA, Trexler MC and Vinson TS (1993a) Forest sector carbon offset programs: near-term opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 561–577
Dixon RK, Winjum JK and Schroeder PE (1993b) Conservation and sequestration of carbon: the potential of forest and agroforest management practices Global Environmental Change. 2: 159–173
Dixon RK, Brown S, Houghton RA, Solomon AM, Trexler MC and Wisniewski J (1994a) Carbon pools and flux of global forest ecosystems. Science 263: 185–190
Dixon RK, Winjum JK, Andrasko KJ, Lee JJ and Schroeder PE (1994b) Integrated systems: assessment of promising agroforest and alternative land-use practices to enhance carbon conservation and sequestration. Climatic Change 30: 1–23
Garrett HE (ed) (1991) Proceedings of Second Conference on Agroforestry in North America. University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 403 pp
Gaston GG, Kolchugina TP and Vinson TS (1993) Potential effect of no-till management on carbon in the agricultural soils of the former Soviet Union. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 45: 295–309
Grainger A (1988) Estimating areas of degraded tropical lands requiring replenishment of forest cover. International Tree Crop Journal 5: 31–61
Gregerson H, Draper S and Elz D (eds) (1989) People and Trees: The Role of Social Forestry in Sustainable Development. EDI Seminar Series. The World Bank, Washington, DC, 273 pp
Heath LS, Kauppi PE, Burschel P, Gregor HD, Guderion R, Kohlmaier GH, Lorenz S, Overdieck D, Scholz F, Thoasius H and Weber M (1993) Contribution of temperate forests to the world.s carbon budget. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 55–70
Hellden U (1992) Desertification-time for an assessment? Ambio 20: 372–383
Hogan KP and Leng RA (1992) Methane emissions form ruminants in semi-arid regions. In: Boag S (ed) Proceedings of Workshop: Assessing Technologies and Management systems of Agriculture and Forestry in Relation to Climate Change, pp 102–104. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, Australia
Houghton RA, Unruh JD and Lefebvre PA (1993) Current land use in the tropics and its potential for sequestering carbon. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 7: 305–320
Howden SM, McKeon GM, Scanlon JC, Carger JO, White DH and Galbally IE (1992) Managing pastures in northern Australia. to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. In: Boag S (ed) Proceedings of Workshop: Assessing Technologies and Management Systems of Agriculture and Forestry in Relation to Climate Change, pp 61–67. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, Australia
IMF (1990) International Financial Statistics Yearbook. International Monetary Fund, Volume XLIV. Washington, DC, 602 pp
Iverson LR, Brown S, Grainger A, Prasad A and Liu D (1993) Carbon sequestration in tropical Asia: an assessment of technically suitable forest lands using geographic information analysis. Climate Research 3: 23–38
Jain RK, Paliwal K, Dixon RK and Gjerstad DH (1989) Improving productivity of multipurpose trees growing on substandard soils in India. Journal of Forestry 87: 38–42
Jenkinson DS and Rayner JH (1977) The turnover of soil organic matter in some of the Rothamsted classical experiments. Soil Science 5: 298–305
Johnson DW (1992) Effects of forest management on soil carbon storage. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 64: 83–100
Kauppi PE, Mielikainen K and Kuusela K (1992) Biomass and carbon budget of European forests, 1971–1990. Science 256, 70–74
Kern JS and Johnson MG (1993) Conservation tillage impacts on national soil and atmospheric carbon levels. Soil Science Society of America Journal 57: 200–210
King GA (1993) Conceptual approaches for incorporating climate change into the development of forest management options for sequestering carbon. Climate Research 3: 61–78
Krankina ON and Dixon RK (1992) Forest management in Russia: challenges and opportunities in the era of perestroika. Journal of Forestry 90: 29–34
Krankina ON and Dixon RK (1994) Forest management options to conserve and sequester terrestrial carbon in Russia. World Resource Review 6: 88–101
Lal R (1989) Agroforestry systems and soil surface management of a tropical Alfisol. III. Soil chemical properties. Agroforestry Systems 8: 113–132
Lugo AE, Sanchez MJ and Brown S (1986) Land use and organic carbon content of some subtropical soils. Plant and Soil 96: 185–196
MacDicken KG and Vergara NT (eds) (1990) Agroforestry: Classification and Management. Wiley, New York, 382 pp
Manabe S and Wetherald RT (1987) Large-scale changes in soil wetness induced by an increase in carbon dioxide. Journal of Atmospheric Science 44: 1211–1235
Mitchell JFB (1989) The greenhouse effect and climate change. Review of Geophysics 27: 115–139
Nair PKR (ed) (1989) Agroforestry Systems in the Tropics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 665 pp
Nair PKR (1993) An Introduction to Agroforestry. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 499 pp
Nair PKR (1994) Agroforestry. Encyclopedia of Agricultural Sciences, Vol 1, pp 5–23. Academic Press, New York
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) (1991) Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming. US National Academy Press, Washington DC, 127 pp
Ojima DS, Dirks BOM, Glenn EP, Owensby CE and Scurlock JO (1993) Assessment of C budget for grasslands and drylands of the world. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 95–110
Row C (1978) Economics of track size in timber growing. Journal of Forestry 76: 576–582
Rubin ES, Cooper RM, Frosch RA, Lee TH, Marland G, Rosenfeld AH and Stine DD (1992) Realistic mitigation options for global warming. Science 257: 148–266
Sampson RN and Hair D (eds) (1992) Forests and Global Change. Vol I. Opportunities for Increasing Forest Cover. American Forests, Washington DC, 285 pp
Sampson RN, Wright LL, Winjum JK, Kinsman JD, Benneman J, Kürsten E and Scurlock JMO (1993) Biomass management and energy. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 139–159
Sanchez PA and Benites JR (1987) Low-input cropping for acid soils of the humid tropics. Science 238: 1521–1527
Schneider SJ (1989) The greenhouse effect: science and policy. Science 243: 771–781
Schroeder P (1993) Agroforestry systems: integrated land use to store and conserve carbon. Climate Research 3: 53–60
Schroeder PE, Dixon RK and Winjum JK (1993) Forest management and agroforestry to sequester and conserve atmospheric carbon dioxide. Unasylva 44: 52–60
Smith TM, Shugart HH, Bonan GB and Smith JB (1991) Modeling the potential response of vegetation to global climate change. Advances in Ecological Research 22: 93–116
Smith TM, Cramer WP, Dixon RK, Leemans R, Neilson RP and Solomon AM (1993) The global terrestrial carbon cycle. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 19–38
Trexler MC and Haugen CM (1995) Keeping it Green: Evaluating Tropical Forestry Strategies to Slow Global Warming. World Resources Institute, Washington DC, 52 pp
Turner DP, Koerper G, Gucinski H, Peterson C and Dixon RK (1993) Monitoring global comparison of forest cover estimates using remote sensing and inventory approaches. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 26: 295–305
Unruh JD, Houghton RA and Lefebvre PA (1993) Carbon storage in agroforestry: an estimate for sub-Saharan Africa. Climate Research 3: 39–52
Winjum JK, Dixon RK and Schroeder PE (1992) Estimating the global potential of forest and agroforest management practices to sequester carbon. Air, Water and Soil Pollution 64: 213–228
Winjum JK and Lewis DK (1993) Forest management and the economics of carbon storage: the non-financial component. Climate Research 3: 111–119
Winjum JK, Dixon RK and Schroeder PE (1993a) Forest management and carbon storage: an analysis of 12 key forest nations. Air, Water and Soil Pollution 70: 239–257
Winjum JK, Meganck RA and Dixon RK (1993b) Expanding global forest management: an easy-first proposal. Journal of Forestry 91: 38–42
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The US Government right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright is acknowledged.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dixon, R.K. Agroforestry systems: sources of sinks of greenhouse gases?. Agroforest Syst 31, 99–116 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00711719
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00711719