Shell | SOHMA

Soil carbon sequestration through integrated agricultural systems in Brazil – “Ag4C”

Ag4C is one of the three thematic projects into the Nature-Based Solution (NBS) program of the Research Center for Greenhouse Gas Innovation (RCG2I) funded by FAPESP/SHELL. The main objective of the Ag4C project is to measure the contributions of integrated agricultural systems on carbon (C) sequestration, to help Brazil to fulfil its NDCs in the Paris Agreement. To achieve our primary goal, the following specific objectives have been established:

to measure the soil carbon stock changes induced by the adoption of integrated agricultural systems (e.g., crop rotation system; agroforestry system; crop-livestock system; crop-livestock-forest system);
to understand the mechanisms of storage and stabilisation of C in the soils using fractionation methods and synchrotron-based techniques;
to quantify the soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CO2, N2O and CH4) in integrated agricultural systems to refine data for national GHG inventories;
to decipher the interaction of soil biota with soil C stabilisation and GHG emissions in integrated agricultural systems;
to apply modelling tools for assessing the impacts of land-use change scenarios, and NDC scenarios on C sequestration under integrated agricultural systems in Brazil;
evaluate the impacts of the adoption of integrated agricultural systems on ecosystem service provision in Brazil;
to offer land management and public policy recommendations for supporting effective nature-based solutions to mitigate climate changes and sustainably promote human wellbeing.