About this Research Topic

Background

In the modern era, greenhouse gas (GHG) is mainly responsible for increasing global temperatures due to both natural causes and anthropogenic activities. The alarming rate of climate change is primarily influenced by anthropogenic activities such as industrialization, fossil fuel burning, land-use change, forest fires, and agricultural practices. Globally, land-use change is responsible for 10–12% of anthropogenic annual GHG emissions. An annual growth rate of 0.4% in the soil ‘C’ stocks, or 4% per year, in the first 30–40 cm depth of soil, would significantly reduce the anthropogenic CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

Climate change mitigation measures have a reciprocal relationship between the terrestrial ecosystem and atmosphere. Sector-specific mitigation measures can have various effects on terrestrial trade-offs in GHG emissions and on the climate change rate. Management practices, such as forest protection, afforestation, conservation agriculture, zero tillage, and residue incorporation could help in both increasing carbon stores and reducing carbon loss from terrestrial ecosystems. Conservation agriculture (CA)-based crop production practices comprising of minimum soil mechanical manipulation, proper soil cover, and growing of different types of crops in cropping sequence helps to successfully reduce the cost of crop production and fuel requirements. CA-based zero-tillage practices can lead to major soil property changes due to surface residue retention, and consequently, to fluctuation in the soil ‘N’ dynamics. Additionally, forests and perennial crops have high above- and below-ground biomass (ABG and BGB) density, where tree species richness can support ecosystem resilience to future climate change, as well as strong potential to support forest biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Missing the Paris agreement target (i.e., limiting global temperature rise to 2°C) could destabilize Earth's climate and terrestrial ecosystems with terrible consequences for ecosystem services, biodiversity, and human life. Therefore, a strategic management plan is urgently needed to reduce CO2 by implementing climate change mitigation measures in terrestrial ecosystems.

In this Research Topic, we will summarize the information related to sources of GHG emissions, monitoring methods, and the potential of GHG emissions within the terrestrial ecosystems. Additionally, the types of emissions, monitoring and methods, carbon dynamics (sink and/or source), net carbon sequestration, as well as the countervailing effects of GHG emissions to carbon sequestration, will also be documented. Afforestation, forest management, and conservation agricultural practices play a significant role in net carbon sequestration and have better prospects for application in terms of net mitigation potential. In the modern era, implementation of the new stage of key ecological stewardship projects at regional and/or global scales is urgent, as well as the need to make a strategic plan in advance to increase net carbon sequestration alongside reducing GHG emissions.

This Research Topic will welcome articles from young researchers, professors, policymakers, environmentalists, and foresters that represent recent innovations in the field of GHG trade-offs from terrestrial ecosystems such as forest ecosystems, agro-ecosystems, carbon sequestration, and carbon dynamics. We focus mainly on GHG emissions from the terrestrial ecosystems and the factors affecting related environmental parameters.

The main topics include the following keywords but are not limited to:

-GHG trade-offs in terrestrial ecosystem
-Net Ecosystem Carbon budget
-Carbon dynamics in terrestrial ecosystem
-Forest carbon stock
-Carbon sinks potentials of terrestrial ecosystem
-Soil organic carbon
-Modelling and monitoring
-Carbon and Nitrogen footprints
-Carbon sequestration
-Climate change policy
-GHG emissions and mitigation
-Carbon credits
-Socio-economic benefits
-Afforestation
-Vulnerability risk assessments

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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