A Review on Increasing Soil Carbon Storage: Mechanisms, Effects of Agricultural Practices and Proxies

Abstract

The worldwide 4 per 1000 project seeks to  assist governments and non-governmental organizations in  their efforts to improve soil carbon (C) stock management.  These stocks are depending on soil C emissions and inputs.  They are the result of interconnected fine-scale mechanisms  that stability or dissolve C carried by biological materials.  The Carbo SMS cooperation has drawn together French  academics specializing in these phenomena and their  influence on C stores in the context of regional and global  change since 2016. This article summarizes the first seminar  of this partnership. In the first part, we discuss recent  advances in our understanding of soil C anchoring methods,  which comprise abiotic stresses processes that occur  concurrently and interact. Plants (the principal source of  carbon via debris but also root systems), microorganisms  (fungi and bacteria), and 'environment engineers' all have an  impact on soil organic carbon stocks (earthworms, termites,  ants). Abiotic mechanisms that are related to soil crystal  properties, opacity, and material fraction on the other hand,  affect these stocks. We demonstrate how agricultural  methods influence soil C stocks in the second half. Land use  and management methods affect both biotic and abiotic  processes. We address several proxies and models that  describe particular processes and their activity. In diverse  soil and environmental situations, as well as how to  incorporate them into large-scale models to improve soil C  stock change estimates. Furthermore, this literature review  highlights future scientific investigations targeted at  preserving or even increasing C stocks, with a focus on  procedures, farming practices' effects on them, and C  inventory forecasting models.