What is the rate at which soils are sequestering carbon annually and can carbon be recycled back into the soil if the soil is covered by vegetation?
Good question and highly related to current world affairs.
See
https://www.wri.org/insights/6-ways-remove-carbon-pollution-sky
Also good read: https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/11/27/carbon-dioxide-removal-climate-change/
Overall, a global effort is seriously needed to find more effective methods to increase the sequestration rates. What matters first is that decision-makers must commit to such an endeavor.
Current estimates are that carbon inputs from photosynthesis by terrestrial vegetation fix more carbon than carbon loss through soil respiration, resulting in a soil storage rate of about 3 GT C/yr. With regenerative agriculture the percentage can increase to between 5 and 8% over 10 to 20 years, by which time the soil will become carbon replete. According to them, each percentage increase represents 8.5 tons of carbon sequestered per acre: so between 25 and 60 tons per acre over 10 -20 years. In general, carbon sequestration by trees can be calculated by multiply the weight of carbon in the tree by 3.67 as the weight of CO2 in trees is determined by the ratio of CO2 to C is 44/12 = 3.67. About 25 percent of our carbon emissions have historically been captured by Earth's forests, farms and grasslands. Scientists and land managers are working to keep landscapes vegetated and soil hydrated for plants to grow and sequester carbon. Biological carbon sequestration happens when carbon is stored in the natural environment. This includes what are known as 'carbon sinks', such as forests, grasslands, soil, oceans and other bodies of water. This is also known as an 'indirect' or passive form of sequestration. Soil carbon (C) sequestration implies transferring of atmospheric CO2 into soil of a land unit through its plants. Co-benefits of soil C sequestration include: advancing food and nutritional security, increasing renewability and quality of water, improving biodiversity, and strengthening elemental recycling. Carbon moves from plants and animals to soils. When plants and animals die, their bodies wood and leave decays bringing the carbon into the ground. Some is buried and will become fossil fuels in millions and millions of years. Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere. Carbon is the main component of soil organic matter and helps give soil its water-retention capacity, its structure, and its fertility and some pools of carbon housed in soil aggregates are so stable that they can last thousands of years.
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