Carbon Storage in Silvopastoral Systems and Other Land Uses, Argentina

Abstract

Silvopastoral systems (SPS) provide a range of ecosystem services, including carbon (C) sequestration. Well-managed SPS outperform grasslands, pastures, and forests in terms of C through increased soil and biomass storage. This becomes relevant for landscapes that continue to be intensely transformed for agriculture and livestock production. In this chapter, we provide information on C storage in native forests under silvopastoral management in different regions of Argentina. In the Dry Chaco region, we evaluated mammal and tree diversity, carbon stocks, and herbaceous productivity in different land covers across a temperature and rainfall gradient. In San Luis, dry forests had higher primary productivity (10.6 vs. 7.8 g CO2/m2/d) and lower net C exchange than open pastures, because of greater drought tolerance. In cattle breeding systems of native forests in the Entre Ríos province, average values of C stored were 65 t C/ha in the soil (30 cm depth) and 20 t C/ha in the tree biomass, varying with forest type and grazing intensity. In Southern Patagonia, we assessed natural variation of carbon storage in Nothofagus antarctica forests, examining changes from different harvesting and landscape transformations. In the context of climate change, it is essential to understand how ecosystems respond in order to increase productivity and resilience of silvopastoral systems. Silvopastoral systems practiced in Argentina provide multiple products (food, wood, fodder) and services, where carbon sequestration represents an advantage compared to monocultures (pastures or crops). The proposition of feasible models for forest-livestock systems, such as SPS, can help determine socialecological and economic thresholds to modulate the provision of ecosystem services in the long term.