Does Livestock Grazing Enhance Or Hinder Soil Carbon Storage?

Grassland plants transfer large amounts of carbon to soil through their roots, and most of that carbon is stored below ground. Therefore, promoting soil carbon storage can be important to help combat climate change. Grazers feed on grassland plants, and conventional wisdom often assumes that removing grazers benefits carbon storage, but a new study in Global Change Biology Communications reveals that the opposite may be the case.

Drawing on real-world evidence from long-term cessation of grazing in the sub-arctic grasslands in Iceland, researchers found that grazing abandonment resulted in lower soil carbon, while continued grazing consistently resulted in higher soil carbon. Long-time grazing abandonment also promoted ecological shifts to lower-soil carbon vegetation types.