Paper: “Compost amendment to enhance carbon sequestration in rangelands,” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation March 2023, 78 (2) 163-177; DOI: https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.2023.00072.
Research Team:
S. Kutos, E. Stricker, A. Cooper, R. Ryals, J. Creque, M. Machmuller, M. Kroegar, and W.L. Silver
Findings: Generally, we found that compost amendments improved aboveground production by >40%, and belowground C content by 50%. Further benefits of compost additions included increasing aggregate stability (~42%), water retention (~18%), nutrient availability (~37% and 126% for nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P], respectively), as well as generally reducing erosion but with high variability. We found little to no effect of compost amendments on plant diversity and very few studies investigated effects on soil microbial community and function. Both field and modeling studies demonstrated that the changes in soil C from compost amendments can result in long-term C storage. Overall, results suggest that compost amendments may contribute to rangeland resilience to climate change with the additional benefit of climate mitigation via soil C sequestration.
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