Towards a global-scale soil climate mitigation strategy.

Amelung, Wulf Bossio, Deborah de Vries, Wim Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid Lehmann, Johannes Amundson, Ronald Bol, Roland Collins, Chris Lal, Rattan Leifeld, Jens Minasny, Budiman Pan, Gengxing Paustian, Keith Rumpel, Cornélia Sanderman, Jonathan van Groenigen, Jan Willem Mooney, Sian Van Wesemael, Bas [UCL] Wander, Michelle Chabbi, Abad et al.[show all]

Sustainable soil carbon sequestration practices need to be rapidly scaled up and implemented to contribute to climate change mitigation. We highlight that the major potential for carbon sequestration is in cropland soils, especially those with large yield gaps and/or large historic soil organic carbon losses. The implementation of soil carbon sequestration measures requires a diverse set of options, each adapted to local soil conditions and management opportunities, and accounting for site-specific trade-offs. We propose the establishment of a soil information system containing localised information on soil group, degradation status, crop yield gap, and the associated carbon-sequestration potentials, as well as the provision of incentives and policies to translate management options into region- and soil-specific practices.