Biological Carbon Sequestration Potential of Three Counties In North Carolina Piedmont Area.

Biological carbon sequestration offers the possibility of storing carbon in soils fairly at low cost and for reasonably long periods of time. Soils in North Carolina are degraded of soil organic carbon (SOC), hence got great potential to store carbon quickly. The three counties selected for this study have majority of the area under open farm land, so the land management/cultivation practices adopted here will play a major role in harnessing the soils potential to sequester carbon. Earlier studies indicate SOC values of 28.4, 43.1, and 16.2 Mg ha^-1 for Forest land, Grass land and Crop land respectively for southeastern part of USA in 1959. Present SOC values for three common soil series determined in Guilford county range between 2.35 to 16.2 Mg ha^-1.  The drastic decrease in SOC values in these soils give an indication as to how much SOC can be incorporated back in to the soils through best management practices there by sequestering carbon. Literature review also suggests that grass/pasture lands have greater potential to sequester carbon compared to forest and crop lands. 30-40% of land in the three counties mentioned above is open farm land which can be converted to grass/pasture land to realize more SOC sequestration.