Native rangelands in Alberta contain large reservoirs of organic carbon and may be sequestering additional atmospheric CO2 through their response to elevated CO2 levels. Mitigation practices to increase atmospheric CO2 sequestration or otherwise reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were evaluated in this report. Improving range health through the effective application of rangeland management principles may increase C storage on rangelands that are currently rated as unhealthy or healthy with problems. However, the potential to reduce GHG emissions by this mechanism is small because most native rangelands in Alberta are healthy and the few estimates of C gain due to improved range health are small and inconsistent. Conversion of annual cropland to rangeland has the potential to increase C sequestration substantially, but this practice is most appropriately considered as a mitigation practice for annual cropland. Inclusion of legumes in seeding mixes and application of compost have good potential to increase C storage when annual cropland or degraded lands is converted to rangeland, but have limited potential to reduce GHG emissions on healthy rangelands. Overall, the potential to adopt practices that reduce GHG emissions on existing Alberta rangelands is small.
