Re-Examining the Relationship between Tillage Regime and Global Climate Change
2009
It is known that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are a major contributor to global climate change and that reducing our emissions will stem its acceleration (Baker et al., 2007). Aside from emission reductions, another method for stemming global climate change is to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere by storing them elsewhere. As the largest carbon pool within terrestrial ecosystems, the soil is thought to have considerable potential to sequester carbon. Changes in land-use and management have been proposed to sequester atmospheric CO₂, particularly converting conventional plowing to conservation tillage, especially no-tillage (Lal, 2004). Businesses are currently allowed to purchase carbon credits for emission reductions through agricultural activities, such as soil carbon sequestration from switching to no-tillage. However, emerging research calls into question the validity of these carbon credits. This paper focuses on the potential role of no-till management in relation to global climate change by specifically examining the use of no-till as a way to sequester atmospheric CO₂ in the world's soils and to combat the predicted effects of global climate change on the agricultural sector.
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