Revisiting IPCC Tier 1 coefficients for soil organic and biomass carbon storage in agroforestry systems

Introduction

While agroforestry systems cover a signifcant amount of land worldwide and have the capacity to sequester large amounts of carbon, they are often not considered in climate change mitigation. Most importantly, the IPCCC does not recognize them in carbon accounting primarily because there is so much diversity in the systems. 

Goals & Methods

This research attempts to establish Tier 1 coefficients for biomass storage for eight main agroforestry systems while also providing a set of stock change factors and SOC accumulation/loss for land use changes. The authors do so by reviewing a 72 scientific, peer-reviewed articles. 

Conclusions & Takeaways

The authors found that the SOC stock change faactors ranged between 0.89 to 1.25 based on the change. They do stress that the coefficients they established are likely to have hidden disparities based on climates, regions, and agroforestry types and encourage governments to synthesize local data in order to attain more site specific information.