T. Hakamata et al., DO PLANT AND SOIL SYSTEMS CONTRIBUTE TO GLOBAL CARBON CYCLING AS A SINK OF CO2 - EXPERIENCES FROM RESEARCH PROJECTS IN JAPAN, Nutrient cycling in agroecosystems, 49(1-3), 1997, pp. 287-293
Major conclusions from our two projects focussing on carbon cycling in
terrestrial ecosystems are as follows: 1) A rural system or a farmlan
d system tends to be a source of carbon dioxide. However, it was possi
ble to increase carbon dioxide sequestration in soil by changing soil
or paddy/upland-field management systems. 2) A model simulation showed
that a carbon budget in a natural forest was balanced before cutting
but the large minus (source) was observed just after cutting. But the
balance changed from minus to plus (sink) in 10 years after cutting. N
early the same amounts of carbon as that stocked in the timbers before
harvesting accumulated in 70-80 years after the cutting. 3) These res
ults indicate the possibility of soils in terrestrial ecosystems as th
e major sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide.