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Task 2, Subtask 1: Land management systems |
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Considerable uncertainty is still present about the physical quantities of C that can be captured with alternative land use management practices. There is general agreement that certain tillage, rotation, and nutrient management systems enhance C sequestration, but there is much less confidence in the rates of C accumulation achieved for different soils and regions when BMPs are integrated to varying degrees for varying lengths of time. Farmers may, for instance, interrupt the continuity of their no-till system, intensify or reduce the crop species grown in rotation cycles, and adjust nutrient management from year to year. The consequences of changes in management practices on C sequestration needs to be quantified to better determine that combination of practices that are most efficient for particular regions. In addition, C sequestration needs to be considered in the context of what BMPs adopted by agricultural producers may be doing to the emissions of other GHGs, as well as to other environmental factors that have value to sustainable crop production and society. We propose to identify appropriate combinations of BMPs for achieving most efficient gains in physical quantities of C sequestration across a wide geographic scope and a wide range of initial soil characteristics. Furthermore, we propose to evaluate system impacts of alternative management practices for C sequestration on other soil quality parameters (e.g. soil N and water holding capacity) at all institutions and on mitigation of other GHGs at selected sites. The nine institutions involved will consistently evaluate soil C sequestration with a tillage system variable plus one or more other BMPs at a minimum of 3 locations per state.
While many BMPs have been suggested to farmers over the years, and the potential economic benefits of adoption appear large, adoption rates have been less than universal. It is important to gain a better understanding of the economic factors that influence individual adoption decisions, and to relate these decisions to the physical measures generated by soil scientists. The research proposed by the institutions involved in this proposal will explore economic components of adoption decisions, including understanding the direct costs of adoption and the additional costs that may be ignored by physical models. A number of different methods will be used by the institutions, including developing BMP budgets, exploring statistical relationships across a range of counties with existing data, and surveying landowners to determine factors that affect their adoption decision. In addition, some of the institutions will explore additional co-benefits associated with adopting BMPs across a wide range of farms (including water quality and recreational benefits), and some institutions will develop full C accounting methods to assess the implications of changing practices on a range of GHGs emissions. Six of the institutions will engage in research into the economic costs of adopting different BMPs, four will explore full C cost accounting, and three will consider the co-benefits. The results of the research conducted will provide information on economic costs and benefits of sequestering C across a range of alternative BMPs in different states. Our site-level work will be conducted at 9 institutions (at a total of over 20 sites) with a wide range of intended cropping systems, soil textures, precipitation levels, and conservation tillage history. Evaluations of continuous no-till versus other tillage system impacts on soil C will occur at all institutions, but in the context of different crop rotation and nutrient management practices. Common measurements of soil C will be made to a 1-m depth at each site. Both treatment and environmental differences among sites will permit evaluation of diverse cropping systems for their influence on soil C dynamics. Some sites will also investigate the impacts of C sequestration strategies on the mitigation of other GHGs. In the following paragraphs we provide details regarding the contributions of each university to computing the physical rates of C sequestration achievable and the associated economic costs. Participants:
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