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ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Natural climate solutions for the United States
Joseph E. Fargione1*, Steven Bassett2, Timothy Boucher3, Scott D. Bridgham4, Richard T. Conant5,
Susan C. Cook-Patton3,6, Peter W. Ellis3, Alessandra Falcucci7, James W. Fourqurean8,
Trisha Gopalakrishna3, Huan Gu9, Benjamin Henderson10, Matthew D. Hurteau11,
Kevin D. Kroeger12, Timm Kroeger3, Tyler J. Lark13, Sara M. Leavitt3, Guy Lomax14,
Robert I. McDonald3, J. Patrick Megonigal6, Daniela A. Miteva15, Curtis J. Richardson16,
Jonathan Sanderman17, David Shoch18, Seth A. Spawn13, Joseph W. Veldman19,
Christopher A. Williams9, Peter B. Woodbury20, Chris Zganjar3, Marci Baranski21, Patricia Elias3,
Richard A. Houghton17, Emily Landis3, Emily McGlynn22, William H. Schlesinger23,
Juha V. Siikamaki24, Ariana E. Sutton-Grier25,26, Bronson W. Griscom3
Limiting climate warming to <2°C requires increased mitigation efforts, including land stewardship, whose poten-
tial in the United States is poorly understood. We quantified the potential of natural climate solutions (NCS)—21
conservation, restoration, and improved land management interventions on natural and agricultural lands—to
increase carbon storage and avoid greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. We found a maximum potential
of 1.2 (0.9 to 1.6) Pg CO2e year−1, the equivalent of 21% of current net annual emissions of the United States. At
current carbon market prices (USD 10 per Mg CO2e), 299 Tg CO2e year−1 could be achieved. NCS would also pro-
vide air and water filtration, flood control, soil health, wildlife habitat, and climate resilience benefits.
INTRODUCTION
Limiting global warming below the 2°C threshold set by the Paris
Climate Agreement is contingent upon both reducing emissions and
removing greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere (1,2).
Natural climate solutions (NCS), a portfolio of discrete land steward-
ship options (3), are the most mature approaches available for car-
bon conservation and uptake compared to nascent carbon capture
technologies (4) and could complement increases in zero-carbon
energy production and energy efficiency to achieve needed climate
change mitigation. Within the United States, the maximum and
economically viable mitigation potentials from NCS are unclear.
Here, we quantify the maximum potential for NCS in the United
States and the portion of this maximum that could be achieved at
several price points. We consider 21 distinct NCS to provide a con-
sistent and comprehensive exploration of the mitigation potential
of conservation, restoration, and improved management in forests,
grasslands, agricultural lands, and wetlands (Fig.1), carefully defined
to avoid double counting (details in the Supplementary Materials).
We estimate the potential for NCS in the year 2025, which is the
target year for the United States’ Nationally Determined Contribution
(NDC) under the Paris Agreement to reduce GHG emissions by 26
to 28% from 2005 levels. Our work refines a coarser-resolution
global analysis (3) and updates and expands the range of options
considered in previous analyses for the United States (5–8).
For each NCS opportunity (Fig.1 and the Supplementary Materials),
we estimate the maximum mitigation potential of GHGs measured
in CO2 equivalents (CO2e), given the below constraints. We then
estimate the reductions obtainable for less than USD 10, 50, and 100
per Mg CO2e. Current carbon markets pay around USD 10 (9). The
social cost of carbon in 2025 is approximately USD 50, using a 3%
discount rate (10). However, a price of at least USD 100 is thought
to be needed to keep the 100-year average temperature from warm-
ing more than 2.5°C (11), and an even higher price may be needed
to meet the Paris Agreement <2°C target. Many NCS also generate
co-benefits, which, even without a price on carbon, provide incen-
tives to invest in NCS implementation. We identified co-benefits
generated by each NCS in four categories of ecosystem services: air,
biodiversity, water, and soil (Fig.1 and table S2).
To avoid conflicts with other important societal goals for land use,
we constrain our maximum estimate to be compatible with human
needs for food and fiber (Supplementary Materials). Within these
constraints, 5.1 Mha of cropland can be restored to grasslands, for-
ests, and wetlands, equal to the area that has left the Conservation
Reserve Program (CRP) since 2007 (8) and less than half the land
currently dedicated to corn ethanol. We also estimate that 1.3 Mha
of pasture could be reforested without affecting livestock produc-
tion, assuming recent improvements in efficiency continue (see the
Supplementary Materials). We assume that timber production can
temporarily decrease by 10%, which maintains timber production
1The Nature Conservancy, Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA. 2The Nature Conservancy,
Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA. 3The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA 22203, USA. 4In-
stitute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
5Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
80523, USA. 6Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD 21037,
USA. 7Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy. 8Marine Sciences Program,
Florida International University, North Miami, FL 33181, USA. 9Graduate School of
Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610, USA. 10Trade and Agriculture
Directorate, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris 75016,
France. 11Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131,
USA. 12Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, United States Geological
Survey, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. 13Center for Sustainability and the Global En-
vironment, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53726, USA. 14The Nature
Conservancy, Oxford OX1 1HU, UK. 15Department of Agricultural, Environmental
and Development Economics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
16Duke University Wetland Center, Nicholas School of the Environment, Durham, NC
27708, USA. 17Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA 02540, USA. 18TerraCarbon
LLC, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA. 19Department of Ecosystem Science and Manage-
ment, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA. 20College of Agricul-
ture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. 21U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250, USA. 22Department of Agriculture and Re-
source Economics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA. 23Cary
Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY 12545, USA. 24International Union for
Conservation of Nature, Washington, DC 20009, USA. 25The Nature Conservancy,
Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. 26Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, Univer-
sity of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA.
*Corresponding author. Email: jfargione@tnc.org
Copyright © 2018
The Authors, some
rights reserved;
exclusive licensee
American Association
for the Advancement
of Science. No claim to
original U.S. Government
Works. Distributed
under a Creative
Commons Attribution
License 4.0 (CC BY).
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levels within the historic range of variation and enables managed
forests and plantations to transition to longer harvest rotations (see
the Supplementary Materials). We assume that extensive natural
forests on private lands can all undergo harvest extension, with
the temporary loss of timber supply replaced by reforestation and
thinning for fire risk reduction (12) or with thinning or select har-
vest practices that still provide timber but maintain carbon levels
(Supplementary Materials) (13,14). We further constrain our analy-
sis to avoid impacts on biodiversity. This biodiversity constraint pre-
cludes both the conversion of natural habitat to energy crops and
the afforestation of native grasslands.
RESULTS
We find a maximum additional NCS mitigation potential of 1.2 Pg
CO2e year−1 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.9 to 1.6 Pg CO2e year−1]
in the year 2025 (Fig.1 and table S1). This is 21% of the 5794.5 Tg
CO2e of net emissions in 2016 (15). The majority (63%) of this po-
tential comes from increased carbon sequestration in plant bio-
mass, with 29% coming from increased carbon sequestration in soil
and 7% coming from avoided emissions of CH4 and N2O. At the
USD 10, 50, and 100 price points, 25, 76, and 91%, respectively, of
the maximum mitigation would be achieved. This means that 1.1 Pg
CO2e year−1 are available at USD 100 per Mg CO2e, which equals
the emission reductions needed to meet the U.S. NDC under the
Paris Agreement (see the Supplementary Materials). If NCS were
pursued in combination with additional mitigation in the energy
sector, then it would therefore enable the United States to exceed its
current NDC ambition. This is important because, globally, current
NDCs (7 to 9 Pg CO2e year−1) would need to be dramatically in-
creased (by an additional 10 to 16 Pg CO2e year−1) to limit warming
below 2°C (16).
This estimate of maximum NCS potential is similar to or higher
than several previous syntheses of mitigation opportunities in the
land sector. For example, the United States Mid-Century Strategy
for Deep Decarbonization estimated a potential land sink of 912 Tg
CO2e year−1, 30% lower than our estimate (5). While other efforts
have focused on the forest sector (7) or the agricultural sector (6),
this analysis presents a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of
NCS opportunities in the United States. For example, this analysis
considers potential additional mitigation from tidal wetlands and
seagrass (“blue carbon”), which has been comprehensively analyzed
for its current status in the United States (17), but not its potential
for additional mitigation.
Fig. 1. Climate mitigation potential of 21 NCS in the United States. Black lines indicate the 95% CI or reported range (see table S1). Ecosystem service benefits linked
with each NCS are indicated by colored bars for air (filtration), biodiversity (habitat protection or restoration), soil (enrichment), and water (filtration and flood control).
See the Supplementary Materials for detailed findings and sources.
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Reforestation has the single largest maximum mitigation poten-
tial (307 Tg CO2e year−1). The majority of this potential occurs in
the northeast (35%) and south central (31%) areas of the United States
(fig. S1). This mitigation potential increases to 381 Tg CO2e year−1
if all pastures in historically forested areas are reforested. Previous
estimates of reforestation potential range widely from 208 to 1290
Tg CO2e year−1 (7). Higher estimates than ours can be obtained by
reforesting or afforesting areas that we excluded (e.g., productive
crop and pasture lands and natural grasslands) and/or by using rates
of carbon sequestration from plantation systems rather than from
natural regenerating forests [e.g., (7)].
Natural forest management of privately held forests has the sec-
ond largest maximum mitigation potential (267 Tg CO2e year−1).
This maximum mitigation is achieved by extending harvest cycles.
Mitigation can also be achieved through forest management prac-
tices such as reduced impact logging and improved silvicultural prac-
tices that release suppressed forest growth (18–20), although often
at lower sequestration rates than extending harvest cycles. These
management practices can be implemented at low or no net cost
(21,22) and do not require a change in business-as-usual (BAU)
land use or ownership rights.
Another promising opportunity associated with forests is fire
management (18 Tg CO2e year−1; fig. S6). Fire management entails
restoring frequent, low-intensity, understory fires in fire-prone forest
ecosystems to reduce the potential for high-severity wildfires (23).
The primary carbon benefit from fire management is avoiding de-
creased net ecosystem production from tree-killing wildfire. In the
absence of improved fire management, climate change is expected
to continue to increase the frequency of high-severity fires and com-
promise the ability of forests to regenerate following these fires (24).
The high uncertainty associated with the climate mitigation bene-
fits of fire management would be reduced by additional research to
quantify the carbon storage benefits of prescribed fire across a di-
versity of forest types, including the length of time that prescribed
fire reduces the risk of subsequent high-severity fires.
Avoided conversion protects carbon stored in extant forests and
grasslands from ongoing losses. More than two-thirds of the avoided
forest conversion potential (38 Tg CO2e year−1) occurs in the Southern
and Pacific Northwest regions (table S14 and fig. S9). Many of the
most intensive areas of rapid forest conversion were located near
urban zones, with additional hot spots in recent agricultural expan-
sion zones (such as California’s Central Valley) and semi-arid re-
gions of the West. Avoided conversion of grassland to cropland
prevents emissions from soils and root biomass (107 Tg CO2e year−1;
fig. S12). The emissions from grassland conversion exceed the emis-
sions from forest conversion because both the rate of conversion
and the per hectare emissions are higher (table S1). Cropland ex-
pansion is a major cause of conversion that affects grasslands much
more than forests (25). The higher rate of emissions occurs because
the conversion of grasslands to croplands results in a 28% loss of
soil carbon from the top meter of soil (26). This generates 125 Mg
CO2e ha−1 in emissions, comprising 81% of the emissions from grass-
land conversion (see the Supplementary Materials). Because research
shows conflicting conclusions regarding the impact of forest con-
version in the United States on soil carbon, we do not include the
soil carbon pool in our estimate of emissions from forest conversion
(see the Supplementary Materials).
Carbon sequestration opportunities in croplands include the use of
cover crops and improved cropland nutrient management. Cover
crops, grown when fields are normally bare, provide additional car-
bon inputs to soils. Growing cover crops on the 88 Mha of the five
primary crops in United States not already using cover crops presents
a substantial opportunity for mitigation (103 Tg CO2e year−1). Cover
crops are increasingly used by U.S. farmers to improve soil health,
yields, and yield consistency (27). Improved management of nitro-
gen fertilizers reduces N2O emissions and avoids fossil fuel emis-
sions associated with fertilizer production (52 Tg CO2e year−1).
Fertilizer rates can be reduced while maintaining yields by using
precision agriculture to apply only the amount required in each part
of the field and by splitting fertilizer applications to match the timing
and supply of fertilizer with crop demand (see the Supplementary
Materials). Emissions can also be reduced by switching from anhy-
drous fertilizer to urea, which has lower N2O emission (6).
The agronomic practices of biochar incorporation (95 Tg CO2e
year−1) and alley cropping (planting widely spaced trees interspersed
with a row crop; 82 Tg CO2e year−1) also have high maximum poten-
tial. However, current adoption is negligible due to a variety of cul-
tural, technological, and cost barriers that would need to be overcome
if these practices were to achieve their mitigation potential (28,29).
Tidal wetland restoration is the largest wetland NCS (12 Tg CO2e
year−1). Roughly 27% of U.S. salt marshes are disconnected from the
ocean and subject to freshwater inundation. This results in a large
increase in CH4 emissions from these “freshened” salt marshes. Re-
connecting salt marshes with the ocean, such as via culverts under
roads or other barriers, can avoid these CH4 emissions (30).
The 10 opportunities described above account for 90% (1082 Tg
CO2e year−1) of the maximum NCS mitigation potential across all
21 opportunities. An additional 11 opportunities, which sum to 122
Tg CO2e year−1, account for just 10% of the maximum potential.
However, these NCS may offer optimal ecological and economic
opportunities at local scales (Fig.1 and Supplementary Materials).
For example, peatland restoration offers a high per hectare mitiga-
tion benefit, especially in regions of the United States with warm
temperate climates (8.2 Mg CO2e ha−1 year−1).
Lower-cost opportunities represent particularly promising areas
for increased near-term investment. We identified 299 Tg CO2e year−1
of NCS opportunities that could be realized for USD 10 Mg CO2e−1
or less (table S1), a price that is in line with many current carbon
markets (9). The two largest lower-cost opportunities are improved
management practices: cover crops (100 Tg CO2e year−1) and im-
proved natural forest management (64 Tg CO2e year−1). Both of
these practices, along with planting windbreaks (5 Tg CO2e year−1)
and legumes in pastures (3 Tg CO2e year−1), have the potential to
increase yields (21,22,27) and therefore to generate additional rev-
enue for landowners. Improved manure management can also provide
low-cost mitigation (12 Tg CO2e year−1) (8). In addition, lower- cost
NCS include increased efficiencies (cropland nutrient management,
28 Tg CO2e year−1; grazing optimization, 6 Tg CO2e year−1) and
avoided conversion (avoided forest conversion, 37 Tg CO2e year−1;
avoided grassland conversion, 24 Tg CO2e year−1).
By itself, the marginal abatement cost gives an incomplete pic-
ture of the potential for implementation of NCS, in part because NCS
provide a variety of co-benefits (Fig.1 and table S2). The values of
these co-benefits are not captured in our marginal abatement costs
yet may drive NCS implementation. For example, investments in fire
management are needed to avoid impacts on air quality and drink-
ing water provision; urban forestry provides human health, aesthetic,
and direct temperature reduction benefits; nutrient management is
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needed to improve water quality and avoid toxic algal blooms (table S2).
Further, NCS can help provide resilience to climate change impacts
on nature and people. For example, building soil carbon increases
the resilience of cropland (31); protecting coastal wetlands can pro-
vide coastal defense against storms (32); and fire management can
help avoid damaging wildfires (23).
We have restricted our analysis to those opportunities where the
literature conclusively demonstrates the potential for mitigation.
This suggests that new research may reveal additional opportunities
for NCS, which would increase the potential identified here. At the
same time, substantial uncertainties exist in some NCS opportuni-
ties (Fig.1 and table S1), highlighting the need for implementation
to be coupled with monitoring and assessment of NCS.
DISCUSSION
The United States is the largest cumulative emitter of carbon dioxide
from fossil fuels (33). Despite the immense size of U.S. GHG emissions
from fossil fuel use, we find that NCS have the potential to generate
mitigation equivalent to 21% of net annual emissions. This reveals
the important contribution to climate mitigation that the land sec-
tor can make, even in developed countries such as the United States.
Globally, current NCS efforts receive only 0.8% of public and
private climate financing (34), despite offering roughly 37% of po-
tential mitigation needed through 2030 (3). One concern that may
have limited the adoption of NCS to date includes competition with
other land uses such as food and bioenergy production. A growing
body of literature suggests that future global food demand can be
met via investments in yield increases, closing yield gaps, diet shifts,
aquaculture, and biofuel policy, without the need to further expand
cropland into natural areas (35,36). In the United States, marginal
cropland, much of which is unprofitable (37), could be restored to
grassland or forests with net societal benefits (38). Similarly, NCS
may compete with bioenergy production. However, this conflict can
be reduced or avoided depending on the form of bioenergy produc-
tion or NCS. Some forms of biomass production, such as residues
and wastes, or high-yielding methods, such as algae, do not require
productive land (39). Our grassland restoration pathway could pro-
duce a limited amount of additional biomass while maintaining carbon
sequestration in soils if low-productivity croplands are converted to
perennial energy grasses (40). Further, NCS based on improved
management of existing land uses do not create land use conflict and
can even increase productivity within that land use (e.g., fire manage-
ment or cover crops). However, aggressive expansion of dedicated
bioenergy crops, given the large land requirement of both first- and
second-generation bioenergy crops (41), would be likely to reduce the
mitigation potential available through NCS, notably via reforesta-
tion, avoided grassland conversion, and natural forest management.
A second concern is that ecosystems have a limited ability to store
additional carbon. For each pathway, we quantified the duration of
time for which mitigation is expected to occur at the rates we esti-
mate, before saturation effects decrease this rate (table S1). We note
that carbon can continue to accumulate in forests for hundreds
of years and in soils for centuries or millennia (table S1 and the
Supplementary Materials). Further, four of our NCS opportunities
(cropland nutrient management, tidal wetland restoration, manure
management, and improved rice management) are based on avoided
emissions of CH4 and N2O, which are benefits that do not saturate.
The mitigation potential of avoided conversion of habitat is limited
by the total carbon contained in the habitat. Our analysis assumes
that rates of conversion persist at current levels in a BAU scenario,
which would represent a continuing source of emissions for at least
67 years for each habitat considered here before reaching “saturation”
when the total area has been lost. However, the long-term benefit of
avoided conversion depends on assumed future BAU conversion rates.
The permanence of the ~2270 Pg C currently stored globally in
biomass (42) and soils to 1 m (26) is a significant concern, because
unmitigated climate change is likely to cause feedbacks that may
increase disturbances such as fire or pest outbreaks (43) or limit net
ecosystem productivity or forest regeneration (24). While NCS would
marginally increase this large carbon pool, putting some additional
carbon at risk, rapid and widespread implementation of NCS would
reduce the overall risk of impermanence to the terrestrial biosphere
that unmitigated climate change is likely to cause.
Another challenge is that avoiding conversion in one area can
cause conversion to shift to other areas, often referred to as “leakage.”
Large-scale sectoral and landscape approaches to land use planning
and policies will be needed to realize the NCS opportunities identi-
fied here. These approaches can and should be designed to buffer
risks of leakage associated with individual projects (44).
Reducing carbon-intensive energy consumption is necessary but
insufficient to meet the ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement.
Comprehensive mitigation efforts that include fossil fuel emission
reductions coupled with NCS hold promise for keeping warming
below 2°C. Beyond providing meaningful climate mitigation, NCS
investment can increase other important ecosystem services. The
conservation, restoration, and improved management of lands in
the United States represent a necessary and urgent component of
efforts to stabilize the climate.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Below, we provide a brief overview of methods for each of the 21 NCS
that we quantified. Full methodological details are provided in the
Supplementary Materials.
Reforestation: Additional carbon sequestration in above- and
belowground biomass and soils gained by converting nonforest (<25%
tree cover) to forest [>25% tree cover (45)] in areas of the contermi-
nous United States where forests are the native cover type. We ex-
cluded areas with intensive human development, including all major
roads (46), impervious surfaces (47), and urban areas (48). To elimi-
nate double counting with the peatland restoration pathway, we re-
moved Histosol soils (49). To safeguard food production, we removed
most cropland and pasture. We discounted the carbon sequestra-
tion mitigation benefit in conifer-dominated forests to account for
albedo effects.
Natural forest management: Additional carbon sequestration in
above- and belowground biomass gained through improved manage-
ment in forests on private lands under nonintensive timber manage-
ment. The maximum mitigation potential was quantified on the basis
of a “harvest hiatus” scenario starting in 2025, in which natural for-
ests are shifted to longer harvest rotations. This could be accom-
plished with less than 10% reduction in timber supply with new
timber supply from thinning treatments for fuel risk reduction until
new timber from reforestation is available in 2030.
Fire management: Use of prescribed fire to reduce the risk of
high-intensity wildfire. We considered fire-prone forests in the west-
ern United States. We assume that treatment eliminates the risk of
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subsequent wildfire for 20 years, but only on the land that was di-
rectly treated. We assume that 5% of lands are treated each year, and we
calculated the benefits that accrue over 20 years, finding that the ini-
tial increase in emissions associated with prescribed fire treatment
is more than offset over time by the avoided impacts of wildfires. We
report the average annual benefit across these 20 years. The impact
of wildfires includes both direct emissions from combustion and
suppression of net ecosystem productivity following wildfires.
Avoided forest conversion: Emissions of CO2 avoided by avoiding
anthropogenic forest conversion. Most forest clearing is followed by
forest regeneration rather than conversion to another land use. To
estimate the rate of persistent conversion (i.e., to another land use),
we first calculated forest clearing in the conterminous United States
from 2000 to 2010 and then used the proportion of forest clearing
that historically was converted to another land use to estimate con-
version rates in 2000 to 2010. We used estimates of avoided carbon
emissions from above- and belowground biomass that are specific
to each region and forest type. We did not count forest loss due to
fire to avoid double counting with the improved fire management
opportunity. We did not count forest loss due to pests because it
is unclear whether this loss can be avoided. We reduced the benefit
of avoided conversion in conifer-dominated forests to account for
their albedo effects.
Urban reforestation: Additional carbon sequestration in above-
and belowground biomass gained by increasing urban tree cover.
We considered the potential to increase urban tree cover in 3535
cities in the conterminous United States. We considered the poten-
tial for additional street trees, and for those cities not in deserts, we
also considered the potential for park and yard tree plantings. The
potential percent increase in tree cover was estimated on the basis of
high-resolution analysis of 27 cities, which excluded sports fields,
golf courses, and lawns (50).
Improved plantations: Additional carbon sequestration gained in
above- and belowground tree biomass by extending rotation lengths
for a limited time in even-aged, intensively managed wood production
forests. Rotation lengths were extended from current economic opti-
mal rotation length to a biological optimal rotation length in which
harvest occurs when stands reach their maximum annual growth.
Cover crops: Additional soil carbon sequestration gained by
growing a cover crop in the fallow season between main crops. We
quantified the benefit of using cover crops on all of the five major
crops in the United States (corn, soy, wheat, rice, and cotton) that
are not already growing cover crops (27), using the mean sequestra-
tion rate quantified in a recent meta-analysis (51).
Avoided conversion of grassland: Emissions of CO2 avoided by
avoiding conversion of grassland and shrubland to cropland. We
quantified avoided emissions from soil and roots (for shrubs, we also
considered aboveground biomass) based on the spatial pattern of
conversion from 2008 to 2012. We used spatial information on lo-
cation of recent conversion and variation in soil carbon and root
biomass to estimate mean annual emission rate from historic con-
version. We estimated a 28% loss of soil carbon down to 1 m (26).
We modeled spatial variation in root biomass based on mean annual
temperature and mean annual precipitation using data from (52).
Biochar: Increased soil carbon sequestration by amending agri-
cultural soils with biochar, which converts nonrecalcitrant carbon
(crop residue biomass) to recalcitrant carbon (charcoal) through
pyrolysis. We limited the source of biochar production to crop resi-
due that can be sustainably harvested. We assumed that 79.6% of
biochar carbon persists on a time scale of >100 years (53,54) and that
there are no effects of biochar on emissions of N2O or CH4 (55,56).
Alley cropping: Additional carbon sequestration gained by plant-
ing wide rows of trees with a companion crop grown in the alley-
ways between the rows. We estimated a maximum potential of alley
cropping on 10% of U.S. cropland (15.4 Mha) (57).
Cropland nutrient management: Avoided N2O emissions due to
more efficient use of nitrogen fertilizers and avoided upstream emis-
sions from fertilizer manufacture. We considered four improved
management practices: (i) reduced whole-field application rate, (ii)
switching from anhydrous ammonia to urea, (iii) improved timing
of fertilizer application, and (iv) variable application rate within
field. We projected a 4.6% BAU growth in fertilizer use in the United
States by 2025. On the basis of these four practices, we found a maxi-
mum potential of 22% reduction in nitrogen use, which leads to
a 33% reduction in field emissions and a 29% reduction including
upstream emissions.
Improved manure management: Avoided CH4 emissions from
dairy and hog manure. We estimated the potential for emission
reductions from improved manure management on dairy farms
with over 300 cows and hog farms with over 825 hogs. Our calcu-
lations are based on improved management practices described
by Pape etal. (8).
Windbreaks: Additional sequestration in above- and belowground
biomass and soils from planting windbreaks adjacent to croplands
that would benefit from reduced wind erosion. We estimated that
windbreaks could be planted on 0.88 Mha, based on an estimated
17.6 Mha that would benefit from windbreaks, and that windbreaks
would be planted on ~5% of that cropland (8).
Grazing optimization: Additional soil carbon sequestration due
to grazing optimization on rangeland and planted pastures, derived
directly from a recent study by Henderson etal. (58). Grazing opti-
mization prescribes a decrease in stocking rates in areas that are
overgrazed and an increase in stocking rates in areas that are under-
grazed, but with the net result of increased forage offtake and live-
stock production.
Grassland restoration: Additional carbon sequestration in soils
and root biomass gained by restoring 2.1 Mha of cropland to grass-
land, equivalent to returning to the 2007 peak in CRP enrollment.
Grassland restoration does not include restoration of shrubland.
Legumes in pastures: Additional soil carbon sequestration due
to sowing legumes in planted pastures, derived directly from a re-
cent global study by Henderson etal. (58). Restricted to planted
pastures and to where sowing legumes would result in net seques-
tration after taking into account potential increases in N2O emis-
sions from the planted legumes.
Improved rice management: Avoided emissions of CH4 and
N2O through improved practices in flooded rice cultivation. Prac-
tices including mid-season drainage, alternate wetting and drying,
and residue removal can reduce these emissions. We used a U.S. En-
vironmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis that projects the po-
tential for improvement across U.S. rice fields, in comparison with
current agricultural practices (59).
Tidal wetland restoration: In the United States, 27% of tidal wet-
lands (salt marshes and mangroves) have limited tidal connection
with the sea, causing their salinity to decline to the point where CH4
emissions increase (30). We estimated the potential for reconnect-
ing these tidal wetlands to the ocean to increase salinity and reduce
CH4 emissions.
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Peatland restoration: Avoided carbon emissions from rewetting
and restoring drained peatlands. To estimate the extent of restor-
able peatlands, we quantified the difference between historic peat-
land extent [based on the extent of Histosols in soil maps (60)] and
current peatland extent. Our estimate of mitigation potential ac-
counted for changes in soil carbon, biomass, and CH4 emissions,
considering regional differences, the type of land use of the converted
peatland, and whether the peatland was originally forested.
Avoided seagrass loss: Avoided CO2 emissions from avoiding sea-
grass loss. An estimated 1.5% of seagrass extent is lost every year (61).
We assumed that half of the carbon contained in biomass and sedi-
ment from disappearing seagrass beds is lost to the atmosphere (62).
Seagrass restoration: Increased sequestration from restoring the
estimated 29 to 52% of historic seagrass extent that has been lost
and could be restored (61). We estimated the average carbon se-
questration rate in the sediment of seagrass restorations based on
data from six seagrass restoration sites in the United States (63).
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
Supplementary material for this article is available at http://advances.sciencemag.org/cgi/
content/full/4/11/eaat1869/DC1
Supplementary Materials and Methods
Fig. S1. Mapped reforestation opportunity areas in the lower 48 states.
Fig. S2. Conceptual framework for improved forest management carbon accounting.
Fig. S3. MAC for carbon sequestration through forest management and aging, after
Golub et al. (99).
Fig. S4. MAC for natural forest management after Latta et al. (98) and best-fit functions.
Fig. S5. MAC curves for improved plantations.
Fig. S6. Fire management analysis area.
Fig. S7. Regions used for reporting avoided forest conversion results.
Fig. S8. Forest conversion from 1986 to 2000.
Fig. S9. Potential carbon emissions from areas at high risk of forest conversion.
Fig. S10. Cities included in the urban reforestation analysis.
Fig. S11. Calibration of remote sensing data for forest cover estimation in urban areas.
Fig. S12. Avoided grassland conversion map.
Fig. S13. MAC curve for avoided grassland conversion.
Fig. S14. Nitrogen fertilizer use in the United States.
Fig. S15. Marginal abatement cost curve for reducing N fertilizer rate.
Fig. S16. Marginal abatement cost curve for applying variable rate technology fertilizer
application.
Fig. S17. Grazing optimization map.
Fig. S18. Legumes in pastures map.
Fig. S19. Grassland restoration map.
Fig. S20. MAC curve for grassland restoration.
Fig. S21. Break-even prices for GHG abatement from rice production.
Fig. S22. MAC curve for salt marsh restoration.
Fig. S23. MAC of avoided GHG emissions from seagrass.
Table S1. Mitigation potential of NCS in 2025.
Table S2. Co-benefits of NCS.
Table S3. Literature MAC estimates for reforestation of agricultural lands.
Table S4. Literature estimates of reforestation costs used to estimate MAC of reforesting
natural ecosystems.
Table S5. Estimated marginal abatement cost of fire management by major forest region.
Table S6. Forest disturbance rates by source.
Table S7. Mean annual forest hectares cleared per year from 1986 to 2000.
Table S8. Mean annual forest hectares cleared per year from 2001 to 2010.
Table S9. Mean annual forest hectares converted per year from 1986 to 2000.
Table S10. Proportion of areas cleared from 1986 to 2000 that had not regenerated to forest
by 2010.
Table S11. Mean predisturbance dry biomass (kg m−2) in forest areas converted from 1986
to 2000.
Table S12. Mean predisturbance dry biomass (kg m−2) in forest areas converted from 2001
to 2010.
Table S13. Carbon emissions (Mg C year−1) from estimated forest conversion from 2001
to 2010.
Table S14. Albedo-adjusted carbon emissions equivalent (Mg Ce year−1) from estimated forest
conversion from 2001 to 2010.
Table S15. Urban reforestation maximum potential annual net C sequestration in 2025.
Table S16. Uncertainty in urban reforestation average annual abatement (Tg CO2) by 2025 at a
cost of USD 100 per Mg CO2.
Table S17. Profitability impacts of cover crops for selected crops.
Table S18. Marginal abatement costs of cover crops in the five primary crops.
Table S19. Maximum feasible N2O reduction for multiple nitrogen fertilizer practices.
Table S20. Results from the literature of the potential for reducing N fertilizer rate using
within-field management.
Table S21. Current and projected GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing in the
United States.
Table S22. Mitigation potential for grazing optimization and legumes in pasture NCS at
different marginal abatement costs.
Table S23. Areas and carbon fluxes for Histosols in the conterminous United States.
Table S24. Peatland restoration mitigation calculations for climate zones within the United
States.
Table S25. 95% CIs for Histosol calculations.
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Acknowledgments
Funding: This study was made possible by funding from the Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation. C.A.W. and H.G. acknowledge financial support from NASA’s Carbon Monitoring
System program (NNH14ZDA001N-CMS) under award NNX14AR39G. S.D.B. acknowledges
support from the DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research Program under the
award DE-SC0014416. J.W.F. acknowledges financial support from the Florida Coastal
Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under National Science Foundation grant
no. DEB-1237517. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and
does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The findings and conclusions in this
publication have not been formally disseminated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and
should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy. We thank L. Hansen
(USDA Economic Research Service) for providing a shapefile of county-level wetland
restoration cost estimates. Author contributions: S.B., T.B., S.D.B., R.T.C., S.C.C.-P., P.W.E., A.F.,
J.E.F., J.W.F., T.G., B.W.G., H.G., B.H., M.D.H., K.D.K., T.K., T.J.L., S.M.L., G.L., R.I.M., J.P.M., D.A.M.,
C.J.R., J.S., D.S., S.A.S, J.W.V., C.A.W., P.B.W., and C.Z. developed individual NCS opportunities.
J.E.F. drafted the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and edited and commented on
the manuscript. Competing interests: G.L. has been a consultant for Virgin Management Ltd.
advising on land-based carbon sequestration strategies. The authors declare no other
competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the
conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials.
Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors.
Submitted 1 February 2018
Accepted 12 October 2018
Published 14 November 2018
10.1126/sciadv.aat1869
Citation: J. E. Fargione, S. Bassett, T. Boucher, S. D. Bridgham, R. T. Conant, S. C. Cook-Patton,
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DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat1869
(11), eaat1869.4Sci Adv
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REFERENCES http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/11/eaat1869#BIBL
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