Appropriate Grazing Can Help Sequester Carbon, Study Shows

A study led by an assistant professor at MIT and published in the journal Nature Climate Change showed that properly managed grazing can increase the amount of carbon that gets stored in the ground and sequestered. However, grazing too intensely causes soil erosion that results in grazing land becoming a net carbon source, rather than a sink, and this is the more common practice in grazing worldwide. This study focused on determining the tipping point between the two outcomes for different climates and soils. It also estimated past carbon losses from grazing practices and projected how much carbon could be removed from the atmosphere by optimum grazing practices.
Related ATTRA topic area: Grazing