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Carbon sequestration in degraded intermountain west rangelands, USA

Provencher, Louis1; Byer, Sarah1; Frid, Leonardo2; Senthivasan, Shreeram2; Badik, Kevin1; Szabo, Kristin3

Research facility: The Nature Conservancy
Published Jun 20, 2023 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mgqnk994c

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Abstract

Rangelands are often ignored in the discussion of using management to sequester carbon but demonstrating that restoration of vast degraded rangelands might pay for itself through carbon credit markets would be a significant conservation contribution. The additional amount and cost of carbon sequestered was quantified by simulating seeding perennial grass and shrub species in sagebrush shrublands dominated by non-native annual grass and forb species (NNAGF) compared to doing nothing in a 485,623 km2 Area Of Interest (AOI) centered around Nevada, USA. Using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, NNAGF cover was mapped across the AOI to locate areas dominated by NNAGFs. Spatial state-and-transition simulation models with a carbon stock-and-flow sub-model simulated the seeding of perennial species in NNAGF-dominated sagebrush shrublands in the Columbian Plateau ecoregion (IL Ranch, Nevada), north-central Great Basin ecoregion outside the North American Monsoon (TS-Horseshoe Ranch, Nevada), and the southeastern Great Basin ecoregion within the North American monsoon (PVMH landscape, Utah). The net biome productivity (NBP) and cost per unit area of sagebrush shrublands was quantified by simulating restoration of NNAGF to perennial vegetation over a 25-year period. The unseeded PVMH landscape, IL Ranch, and TS-Horseshoe Ranch were sinks of carbon (i.e., positive NBP) at 84, 9, and 11 g C∙m-2∙yr-1, respectively. About 58% to 90% of NBP was stored in the soil. The IL Ranch required only small levels of seeding and was a small sink of C at 0.71 ± 0.65 g C∙m-2∙yr-1, whereas the additional NBP for the seeded PVMH landscape was 19.9 ± 10.6 g C∙m-2∙yr-1. When extrapolated to the AOI, the most and least carbon stored, respectively, was in Utah (136,132 metric Ton∙yr-1, cost: $287M) and the central Great Basin (3,196 metric Ton∙yr-1, cost: $23M). Positive NBP values reported here showed that carbon sequestration in sagebrush shrublands compares favorably with those of more productive systems in the USA and worldwide.