Maximizing tree carbon in croplands and grazing lands while sustaining yields

Starry Sprenkle-Hyppolite, Bronson Griscom, Vivian Griffey, Erika Munshi, Melissa Chapman

Carbon Balance and Management, 19

July 31, 2024

Integrating trees into agricultural landscapes can provide climate mitigation and improves soil fertility, biodiversity habitat, water quality, water flow, and human health, but these benefits must be achieved without reducing agriculture yields. Prior estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) removal potential from increasing tree cover in agriculture assumed a moderate level of woody biomass can be integrated without reducing agricultural production. Instead, we used a Delphi expert elicitation to estimate maximum tree covers for 53 regional cropping and grazing system categories while safeguarding agricultural yields. Comparing these values to baselines and applying spatially explicit tree carbon accumulation rates, we develop global maps of the additional CO2 removal potential of Tree Cover in Agriculture. We present here the first global spatially explicit datasets calibrated to regional grazing and croplands, estimating opportunities to increase tree cover without reducing yields, therefore avoiding a major cost barrier to restoration: the opportunity cost of CO2 removal at the expense of agriculture yields.

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CITATION

Sprenkle-Hyppolite, S., Griscom, B., Griffey, V. et al. Maximizing tree carbon in croplands and grazing lands while sustaining yields. Carbon Balance Manage 19, 23 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-024-00268-y