carbon sequestration

sequestration of soil organic carbon (SOC), see below, is the process by which carbon is fixed from the atmosphere via plants or organic residues and stored in the soil. When dealing with CO2 , SOC sequestration involves three stages: 1) the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere via plant photosynthesis; 2) the transfer of carbon from CO2 to plant biomass; and 3) the transfer of carbon from plant biomass to the soil where it is stored in the form of SOC in the most labile pool (FAO 2017). In principle, the amount of SOC stored in a given soil is dependent on the equilibrium between the amount of carbon (C) entering the soil and the amount of C leaving the soil. The capacity of soils to store C is limited and organic C contents of soils in pristine ecosystems are largely at equilibrium, i.e., the release of CO2 by soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition and new formation of SOM by organic matter input from plant debris balance each other.[1]