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Afforestation of abandoned agricultural lands for carbon sequestration: how does it compare with natural succession?

Plant and Soil volume 475, pages 605–621 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this study was to compare the accumulation over time of organic carbon (C) in soil and vegetation of abandoned agricultural lands left to natural vegetation succession or afforested with planted white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) in Abitibi (Canada). The agricultural areas of this region originated from the clearing of forested lands in the late 19th -early 20th centuries. The aim was to determine whether afforestation of such lands is a relevant tool for C sequestration and climate change mitigation.

Methods

Field and laboratory measures for tree, shrub and herbaceous strata, woody debris and soil down to a 50 cm depth were carried out on abandoned agricultural lands that were either left to natural succession or planted, to determine total C stocks. The experimental design was a chronosequence covering 50 years, with sites representing various stages following agriculture abandonment and plantation.

Results

There was no significant difference in the amount of C stored by lands that were either planted or left to natural succession over a 50-year time period. Both types of lands were found to be net C sinks. Abandoned lands left to natural succession stored 1.3 times more C in the soil compared with afforested lands, while the latter stored twice as much C in aboveground biomass.

Conclusions

These results put into perspective the use of afforestation to increase land C sinks and suggest that natural succession might also play a role in land management practices in the context of climate change mitigation.

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Data availability

The data used in this work are openly available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16725457.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Philippe Duval, forest technician, for his invaluable help for site selection, documentation and sampling; Félix Baril-Veillette and Émile Lacroix, for the inestimable help during field sampling; and Nicole Drouin and her team for the carbon analyses at the Organic and Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory of the Direction de la recherche forestière. This study was funded by the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife, and Parks (research project 142332167), and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council through Undergraduate Student Research Awards to F. Baril-Veillette and É. Lacroix and through a Discovery Grant to E. Thiffault (grant number RGPIN-2018-05755).

Funding

This publication was funded by the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife, and Parks (research project 142332167), and by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council through Undergraduate Student Research Awards to F. Baril-Veillette and É. Lacroix and through a Discovery Grant to E. Thiffault (grant number RGPIN-2018-05755).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center on Renewable Materials, Department of wood and forest sciences, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada

    Melina Thibault & Evelyne Thiffault

  2. Forest Research Institute, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Canada

    Yves Bergeron

  3. Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Canada

    Yves Bergeron

  4. Direction de la Recherche Forestière, Quebec Ministry of Forest, Wildlife and Parks, Quebec City, Canada

    Rock Ouimet & Sylvie Tremblay

Authors
  1. Melina Thibault
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  2. Evelyne Thiffault
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  5. Sylvie Tremblay
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Contributions

Conceptualization : E.T, S.T, Y.B.

Formal analysis : M.T., R.O.

Funding acquisition: S.T.

Methodology : M.T, E.T, Y.B, R.O, S.T.

Project administration : S.T.

Writing (original draft) : M.T.

Writing (review and editing) : M.T, E.T, Y.B, R.O, S.T.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Evelyne Thiffault.

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Responsible Editor: Timothy J. Fahey.

Sylvie Tremblay is retired from Direction de la Recherche Forestière, Quebec Ministry of Forest, Wildlife and Parks, Quebec City, Canada

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Thibault, M., Thiffault, E., Bergeron, Y. et al. Afforestation of abandoned agricultural lands for carbon sequestration: how does it compare with natural succession?. Plant Soil 475, 605–621 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05396-3

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