Soil Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Key Points

• Climate change is linked to increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.
• The major greenhouse gases in grain production are nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.
• Grain cropping, embracing best management practices, could become part of the solution to elevated greenhouse gas emissions.
• Life cycle assessment (LCA), a methodology for determining the environmental footprint of products and production systems, is now being applied to agriculture.
• At first glance, the use of nitrogenous fertilisers appears to be the major source of greenhouse gas emissions in grain cropping.
• However, when potential changes in soil carbon stocks are included in LCAs of N-fertilised and N-fixing legume crops, a different picture emerges.
• Farming practices that improve the productivity and profitability of grain crops can also benefit soil carbon stocks.

GRDC Project Code DAN00160

Region North, South, West

• 359.33 kb Soil Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Factsheet