The Role of Small Woody Landscape Features and Agroforestry Systems for National Carbon Budgeting in Germany

Karolina Golicz, Gohar Ghazaryan, Wiebke Niether, Ariani C. Wartenberg, Lutz Breuer, Andreas Gattinger, Suzanne R. Jacobs, Till Kleinebecker, Philipp Weckenbrock and André Große-Stoltenberg
Additional contact information
Karolina Golicz: Institute for Landscape Ecology and Resources Management (ILR), Research Centre for BioSystems, Land Use and Nutrition (iFZ), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Gohar Ghazaryan: Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalder Straße 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Wiebke Niether: Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding II, Organic Farming, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21 C, 35394 Giessen, Germany
Ariani C. Wartenberg: Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalder Straße 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Lutz Breuer: Institute for Landscape Ecology and Resources Management (ILR), Research Centre for BioSystems, Land Use and Nutrition (iFZ), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Andreas Gattinger: Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding II, Organic Farming, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21 C, 35394 Giessen, Germany
Suzanne R. Jacobs: Institute for Landscape Ecology and Resources Management (ILR), Research Centre for BioSystems, Land Use and Nutrition (iFZ), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Till Kleinebecker: Centre for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Senckenbergstrasse 3, 35390 Giessen, Germany
Philipp Weckenbrock: Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding II, Organic Farming, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21 C, 35394 Giessen, Germany
André Große-Stoltenberg: Centre for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Senckenbergstrasse 3, 35390 Giessen, Germany

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: The intensification of food production systems has resulted in landscape simplification, with trees and hedges disappearing from agricultural land, principally in industrialized countries. However, more recently, the potential of agroforestry systems and small woody landscape features (SWFs), e.g., hedgerows, woodlots, and scattered groups of trees, to sequester carbon was highlighted as one of the strategies to combat global climate change. Our study was aimed to assess the extent of SWFs embedded within agricultural landscapes in Germany, estimate their carbon stocks, and investigate the potential for increasing agroforestry cover to offset agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We analyzed open-source geospatial datasets and identified over 900,000 hectares of SWFs on agricultural land, equivalent to 4.6% of the total farmland. The carbon storage of SWFs was estimated at 111 ± 52 SD teragrams of carbon (Tg C), which was previously unaccounted for in GHG inventories and could play a role in mitigating the emissions. Furthermore, we found cropland to have the lowest SWF density and thus the highest potential to benefit from the implementation of agroforestry, which could sequester between 0.2 and 2 Tg of carbon per year. Our study highlights that country-specific data are urgently needed to refine C stock estimates, improve GHG inventories and inform the large-scale implementation of agroforestry in Germany.

Keywords: CORINE; Copernicus land monitoring service; carbon sequestration; biomass carbon stock; agroforestry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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