Managing coastal farmlands to store carbon and mitigate climate change

Farmlands experiencing SWI are at the forefront of climate change and rising sea levels. The management of these lands is crucial if we want to preserve soil C now and sequester more C in the future.

A new publication from the Agroecology lab examines how saltwater intrusion can alter soil carbon in low-lying coastal agricultural fields. We found that soil carbon pools were larger in field edges and ditch banks than in the center of fields suggesting that saltwater intrusion is facilitating the accumulation and stabilization of soil carbon in soils that are considered marginal. Check out the article at Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.