ARS Explores Ways to Keep Carbon in the Soil By Dennis O'Brien
December 2, 2009 Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists
are testing out alternative ways of tilling the soil and
rotating crops to see if they can help wheat farmers in Oregon
sequester more carbon in the soil and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. Soil organic carbon plays a major role in how well a
cultivated field holds moisture, provides nutrients and remains
productive. That can be a problem in eastern Oregon because the
soils are relatively low in organic carbon. Wheat farmers there
traditionally plant winter wheat one year and leave the field
fallow for a season, using traditional methods to plow before
planting. Hero Gollany, a soil scientist at the ARS Columbia
Plateau Conservation Research Center in Pendleton, Ore., is
looking at three scenarios that may help. In one field, she is
comparing levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide
emissions released from the traditional 2-year rotation with an
alternative 3-year cycle of