סמינר בחוג למדעי כדור הארץ: Sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide as inorganic carbon under semi-arid forests

Abstract:

Sequestration of carbon through forestation has been proposed to reduce rising atmospheric CO2 levels. But only organic carbon has so far been considered. Inorganic carbon storage in semi-arid regions, precipitated in the unsaturated zone (USZ) is of greater importance for long term sequestration of global CO2. Extrapolating data from the Yatir forest in Israel, we suggest that planting trees globally  in semi-arid regions has the  potential for increasing sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide  by ~1 billion tons of atmospheric CO2/year. This value represents ~5% of the current rate of increase of 20 billion tons of atmospheric CO2/year. Based on the Yatir data, sequestration of atmospheric CO2 as inorganic carbon under semi-arid forests represents a sustainable and economic method to help suppress the rate by which CO2 is increasing in the atmosphere. Semi-arid regions, which comprise ~17% of the global land surface, are generally characterized by marginal agriculture and herding. Low-cost and low-tech afforestation can offer employment in these impoverished regions that are otherwise characterized by few opportunities.

מארגנת הסמינר: ד"ר רוית חלד