Examining the impacts of regenerative agriculture on soil carbon: A community-based participatory study.
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Authors
Graf, Paige
Deborah McGrath (Honors Thesis Advisor)
Issue Date
2024-05-01
Type
Language
en_US
Keywords
University of the South , Biology Department , Sewanee Senior Honors Theses 2024 , carbon sequestration , regenerative farming , rotational grazing , soil carbon
Alternative Title
Abstract
Innovative farmers in the southeastern Cumberland Plateau region are stewarding their lands using regenerative practices, such as improved cover cropping and rotational grazing. These practices have been shown to increase and sequester soil carbon, offering an important tool for mitigating climate change caused by rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations. In partnership with the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers (SeTNYF) Coalition, we initiated a pilot project to examine the impact of rotational grazing and cover cropping on soil carbon on seven local small farms. We employed a community-based participatory approach to design the research around the needs of the local community and to ensure that farmers were consulted at every step. We compared soil carbon at two depths (0-15 and 15-30 cm) between parcels managed with regenerative practices (rotational grazing or cover cropping) and adjacent non-regenerative plots on seven farms. Using the sampling protocol employed by the Soil Inventory Project, we sampled at a minimum density of 3 samples per acre, although on some farms we sampled more, for a total of 406 samples. We hypothesized that soils under rotational grazing or cover crops would have higher organic carbon than adjacent non-regeneratively managed land. Despite the fact that farms had been rotationally grazed for at least five years, we found no significant difference in soil carbon between rotational grazing and adjacent plots. Only on one farm did we find significantly higher carbon under soils that had been cover cropped. Our interviews with farmers suggested that the sampling density may not have been high enough to detect changes in carbon resulting from highly localized regenerative practices, especially given the inherent heterogeneity of soils, compounded by differing land use histories. More research on other factors influencing soil is crucial for future carbon studies to better understand the environmental benefits of regenerative agriculture. While we found no effect of rotational grazing on soil in this study, these data provide a baseline for continued research on small farms which has been enhanced through our use of the community-based participatory approach.
Description
Citation
Publisher
University of the South