TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhanced top soil carbon stocks under organic farming
AU - Gattinger, Andreas
AU - Muller, Adrian
AU - Haeni, Matthias
AU - Skinner, Colin
AU - Fliessbach, Andreas
AU - Buchmann, Nina
AU - Maeder, Paul
AU - Stolze, Matthias
AU - Smith, Pete
AU - Scialabba, Nadia El-Hage
AU - Niggli, Urs
PY - 2012/10/30
Y1 - 2012/10/30
N2 - It has been suggested that conversion to organic farming contributes to soil carbon sequestration, but until now a comprehensive quantitative assessment has been lacking. Therefore, datasets from 74 studies from pairwise comparisons of organic vs. nonorganic farming systems were subjected to metaanalysis to identify differences in soil organic carbon (SOC). We found significant differences and higher values for organically farmed soils of 0.18 +/- 0.06% points (mean +/- 95% confidence interval) for SOC concentrations, 3.50 +/- 1.08 Mg C ha(-1) for stocks, and 0.45 +/- 0.21 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1) for sequestration rates compared with nonorganic management. Metaregression did not deliver clear results on drivers, but differences in external C inputs and crop rotations seemed important. Restricting the analysis to zero net input organic systems and retaining only the datasets with highest data quality (measured soil bulk densities and external C and N inputs), the mean difference in SOC stocks between the farming systems was still significant (1.98 +/- 1.50 Mg C ha-1), whereas the difference in sequestration rates became insignificant (0.07 +/- 0.08 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1)). Analyzing zero net input systems for all data without this quality requirement revealed significant, positive differences in SOC concentrations and stocks (0.13 +/- 0.09% points and 2.16 +/- 1.65 Mg C ha(-1), respectively) and insignificant differences for sequestration rates (0.27 +/- 0.37 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1)). The data mainly cover top soil and temperate zones, whereas only few data from tropical regions and subsoil horizons exist. Summarizing, this study shows that organic farming has the potential to accumulate soil carbon.
AB - It has been suggested that conversion to organic farming contributes to soil carbon sequestration, but until now a comprehensive quantitative assessment has been lacking. Therefore, datasets from 74 studies from pairwise comparisons of organic vs. nonorganic farming systems were subjected to metaanalysis to identify differences in soil organic carbon (SOC). We found significant differences and higher values for organically farmed soils of 0.18 +/- 0.06% points (mean +/- 95% confidence interval) for SOC concentrations, 3.50 +/- 1.08 Mg C ha(-1) for stocks, and 0.45 +/- 0.21 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1) for sequestration rates compared with nonorganic management. Metaregression did not deliver clear results on drivers, but differences in external C inputs and crop rotations seemed important. Restricting the analysis to zero net input organic systems and retaining only the datasets with highest data quality (measured soil bulk densities and external C and N inputs), the mean difference in SOC stocks between the farming systems was still significant (1.98 +/- 1.50 Mg C ha-1), whereas the difference in sequestration rates became insignificant (0.07 +/- 0.08 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1)). Analyzing zero net input systems for all data without this quality requirement revealed significant, positive differences in SOC concentrations and stocks (0.13 +/- 0.09% points and 2.16 +/- 1.65 Mg C ha(-1), respectively) and insignificant differences for sequestration rates (0.27 +/- 0.37 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1)). The data mainly cover top soil and temperate zones, whereas only few data from tropical regions and subsoil horizons exist. Summarizing, this study shows that organic farming has the potential to accumulate soil carbon.
KW - climate change
KW - soil quality
KW - agricultural systems
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1209429109
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1209429109
M3 - Article
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 109
SP - 18226
EP - 18231
JO - PNAS
JF - PNAS
IS - 44
ER -