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Soil Carbon Sequestration or Biofuel Production: New Land-Use Opportunities for Mitigating Climate over Abandoned Soviet Farmlands

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Vuichard

    (LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] - UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - DRF (CEA) - Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, CIRED - centre international de recherche sur l'environnement et le développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, MOSAIC - Modélisation des Surfaces et Interfaces Continentales - LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] - UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - DRF (CEA) - Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives)

  • Philippe Ciais

    (LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] - UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - DRF (CEA) - Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, ICOS-ATC - ICOS-ATC - LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] - UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - DRF (CEA) - Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives)

  • Adam Wolf

    (DGE - Department of Global Ecology [Carnegie] - Carnegie Institution for Science)

Abstract

Although the CO(2) mitigation potential of biofuels has been studied by extrapolation of small-scale studies, few estimates exist of the net regional-scale carbon balance implications of biofuel cultivations programs, either growing conventional biofuel crops or applying new advanced technologies. Here we used a spatially distributed process-driven model over the 20 Mha of recently abandoned agricultural lands of the Former Soviet Union to quantify the GHG mitigation by biofuel production from Low Input/High Diversity (LIHD) grass-legume prairies and to compare this GHG mitigation with the one of soil C sequestration as it currently occurs. LIHD has recently received a lot of attention as an emerging opportunity to produce biofuels over marginal lands leading to a good energy efficiency with minimal adverse consequences on food security and ecosystem services. We found that depending on the time horizon over which one seeks to maximize the GHG benefit the optimal time for implementing biofuel production shifts from "never" (short-term horizon) to "as soon as possible" (longer-term horizon). These results highlight the importance of reaching agreement a priori on the target time interval during which biofuels are expected to play a role within the global energy system, to avoid deploying biofuel technology over a time interval for which it has a detrimental impact on the GHG mitigation objective. The window of opportunity for growing LIHD also stresses the need to reduce uncertainties in soil C inputs, turnover, and soil organic matter stability under current and future climate and management practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Vuichard & Philippe Ciais & Adam Wolf, 2009. "Soil Carbon Sequestration or Biofuel Production: New Land-Use Opportunities for Mitigating Climate over Abandoned Soviet Farmlands," Post-Print hal-00716746, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00716746
    DOI: 10.1021/es901652t
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    Cited by:

    1. Nikolay Fedorov & Pavel Shirokikh & Svetlana Zhigunova & Elvira Baisheva & Ilshat Tuktamyshev & Ilnur Bikbaev & Mikhail Komissarov & Gleb Zaitsev & Raphak Giniyatullin & Ilyusya Gabbasova & Ruslan Ura, 2023. "Dynamics of Biomass and Carbon Stocks during Reforestation on Abandoned Agricultural Lands in Southern Ural Region," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, July.
    2. He, Songtang & Wang, Daojie & Li, Yong & Fang, Yingchao & Lan, Huijuan & Chen, Wenle, 2019. "Implementation of a landscape ecological use pattern model: Debris flow waste-shoal land use in the Yeyatang Basin, Yunnan Province, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 483-492.
    3. Balkrishna Rao, 2014. "Alleviating Poverty in the Twenty-First Century Through Frugal Innovations," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 40-59.
    4. Prishchepov, Alexander & Müller, Daniel & Dubinin, Maxim & Baumann, Mattias & Radeloff, Volker C., 2013. "Детерминанты Пространственного Распределения Заброшенных Сельскохозяйственных Земель В Европейской Части России [Determinants of the spatial distribution of abandoned agricultural lands in the Euro," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(3), pages 30-62.
    5. Uttam Khanal, 2018. "Why are farmers keeping cultivatable lands fallow even though there is food scarcity in Nepal?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 603-614, June.
    6. Wu, Jy S. & Tseng, Hui-Kuan & Liu, Xiaoshuai, 2022. "Techno-economic assessment of bioenergy potential on marginal croplands in the U.S. southeast," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

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