• Authors:
    • Paustian, K.
    • Capalbo, S. M.
    • Antle, J. M.
    • Mooney, S.
  • Source: Environmental Management
  • Volume: 33
  • Issue: Supplement 1
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: A large body of research suggests that US crop-land soils can also sequester significant amounts of C and are a promising source of C credits. This paper presents a framework for assessing the transactions costs associated with per-hectare and per-credit contract types and addresses the potential magnitude of transactions costs associated with measuring soil C credits under a per-credit contract within the dry-land crop region of Montana, USA. In the empirical analysis, we estimate the total measurement costs for soil C credits and investigate how changes in contract (and region) size as well as increases in C credit variability affect total measurement costs. The empirical analyses suggest that increasing the size of the contract and aggregating credits over a larger number of producers can lower measurement costs associated with the per-credit contract, even in the face of increasing C variability. Thus contracts for large quantities of soil credits increase the likelihood that the per-credit contract remains more efficient than the per-hectare contract. However, these empirical results reflect the specific data and conditions present within the case study region. The theoretical expectation is that sample size and measurement costs can either increase or decrease as the population to be sampled increases. Thus the measurement costs associated with a per-credit contract could respond differently from this analysis across the spatial extent of the US.
  • Authors:
    • Ingram, L. J.
    • Schuman, G. E.
    • Mortenson, M. C.
  • Source: Environmental Management
  • Volume: 33
  • Issue: Supplement 1
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: Management practices can significantly influence carbon sequestration by rangeland ecosystems. Grazing, burning, and fertilization have been shown to increase soil carbon storage in rangeland soils of the Great Plains. Research was initiated in 2001 in northwestern South Dakota to evaluate the role of interseeding a legume, Medicago sativa ssp. falcata, in northern mixed-grass rangelands on carbon sequestration. Sampling was undertaken on a chronosequence of sites interseeded in 1998, 1987, and 1965 as well as immediately adjacent untreated native rangeland sites. Soil organic carbon exhibited an increase of 4% in the 1998, 8% in the 1987, and 17% in the 1965 interseeding dates compared to their respective native untreated rangeland sites. Nitrogen fixation by the legume led to significant increases in total soil nitrogen and increased forage production in the interseeded treatments. Increases in organic carbon mass in this rangeland ecosystem can be attributed to the increase in soil organic carbon storage and the increased aboveground biomass resulting from the increased nitrogen in the ecosystem. The practice of interseeding adaptable cultivars of alfalfa into native rangelands may help in the mitigation of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and enhance the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem.
  • Authors:
    • Lee, H. C.
    • McCarl, B. A.
    • Murray, B. C.
  • Source: Land Economics
  • Volume: 80
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: Leakage from forest carbon sequestration - the amount of a program's direct carbon benefits undermined by carbon releases elsewhere - depends critically on demanders' ability to substitute non-reserved timber for timber targeted by the program. Analytic, econometric, and sector-level optimization models are combined to estimate leakage from different forest carbon sequestration activities. Empirical estimates for the United States show leakage ranges from minimal ( 90%), depending on the activity and region. These results suggest that leakage effects should not be ignored in accounting for the net level of greenhouse gas offsets from land use change and forestry mitigation activities.
  • Authors:
    • Diersen, M. A.
  • Source: South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension Service Extension Extra
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: This extension bulletins examines the economics of grazing or haying Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land.
  • Authors:
    • Gassman, P. W.
    • Kling, C. L.
    • Feng, H.
  • Source: Choices
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: Capturing and storing carbon in biomass and soils in the agriculture and forest sector has gained widespread acceptance as a potential greenhouse gas mitigation strategy. Scientists increasingly understand the mechanisms by which various land-use practices can sequester carbon. Such practices include the introduction of cover crops on fallow land, the conversion of conventional tillage to conservation tillage, and the retirement of land from active production to a grass cover or trees. However, the policy design for implementing carbon sequestration activities is still being developed, and significant uncertainties remain concerning the cost effectiveness of carbon sequestration relative to other climate-change mitigation strategies.
  • Authors:
    • Frank, A. B.
  • Source: Environmental Management
  • Volume: 33
  • Issue: Supplement 1
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: The large area occupied by temperate grassland ecosystems makes it important to determine their strength as a carbon sink. The Bowen ratio/energy balance (BREB) technique was used to determine CO 2 fluxes over a moderately grazed mixed-grass prairie at Mandan, North Dakota, USA, over a 6-year period from 1996 to 2001. Above-ground biomass and leaf area index (LAI) were measured about every 21 days throughout the growing period. Root biomass was determined to 1.1 m depth in mid-July each year. Peak above-ground biomass typically occurred between mid-July to early August and ranged from 782 kg/ha in 1998 to 2173 kg/ha in 1999. Maximum LAI ranged from 0.4 in 1998 to 0.9 in 1999. Root biomass ranged from 11.8 Mg/ha in 1997 to 17.4 Mg/ha in 1996. Maximum daily CO 2 fluxes generally coincided with periods of maximum LAI and above-ground green biomass. The average time period for CO 2 uptake was 5 May to 3 October. Annual CO 2 fluxes ranged from a low of 13 g CO 2/m 2 in 1998 to a high of 247 g CO 2/m 2 in 2001, nearly a 20-fold difference, and averaged 108 g CO 2/m 2. The cumulative annual flux over all 6 years was 646 g CO 2/m 2 or 176 g CO 2-C/m 2. These results indicate that the strength of the carbon sink for this moderately grazed prairie site is about 30 g CO 2-C/m 2/yr, which is quite small, but considering that the site was grazed and still remains a sink for carbon, it is significant.
  • Authors:
    • Stuedemann, J. A.
    • Wilkinson, S. R.
    • Franzluebbers, A. J.
  • Source: Agronomy Journal
  • Volume: 96
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: Productivity, quality, and persistence of 'Coastal' bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] pastures are affected by fertilization, but possible interactions with defoliation regime including animal grazing are not fully known. We evaluated three sources of fertilization with equivalent N rates [inorganic, crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum L.) cover crop plus inorganic, and chicken (Gallus gallus) broiler litter] factorially arranged with four defoliation regimes [unharvested, cattle (Bos taurus) grazing to maintain high (4.5 +/- 1.6 Mg ha(-1)) and low (2.5 +/- 1.1 Mg ha(-1)) forage mass, and hayed monthly] on estimated forage dry matter production, forage and surface residue C/N ratio, and ground cover of pastures on a Typic Kanhapludult in Georgia during 5 yr. Mean annual forage dry matter production was 7.5 +/- 0.7 Mg ha(-1) with hay harvest but declined (1.3 Mg ha(-1) yr(-1)) significantly with time as a result of lower precipitation. With grazing, estimated production was 8.3 +/- 1.0 Mg ha(-1) and did not change with time, suggesting that grazing cattle sustained forage productivity by recycling nutrients and creating better surface soil conditions. Coastal bermudagrass as a percentage of ground cover (initially 81%) declined 5 +/- 2% yr(-1) with unharvested and grazing to maintain low forage mass, declined 3 +/- 1% yr(-1) with haying, and remained unchanged (-1 +/- 1% yr(-1)) with grazing to maintain high forage mass. Pastures with high forage mass were more productive than with low forage mass (9.2 +/- 1.6 vs. 7.5 +/- 1.1 Mg ha(-1)) from a forage sustainability perspective, primarily by avoiding encroachment of undesirable plant species.
  • Authors:
    • Glauber, J. W.
  • Source: American Journal of Agricultural Economics
  • Volume: 86
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: from intro: "In the following sections, the paper reconsiders the crop insurance program and the problems of agricultural insurance more generally. It draws on the large literature that has emerged on crop insurance, particularly over the past ten years. Economic research on crop insurance can be traced at least as far back as Valgren's 1922 study of private insurance markets. However, the amount of research on crop insurance has increased dramatically over the past ten years, paralleling the growth in the program itself. For example, over 1981-93, ten journal articles were published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Since 1994, fifty-one articles have been published, including over twenty in 2003 and 2004 alone."
  • Authors:
    • Herel, C. H.
    • Pieper, R. D.
    • Holechek, J. L.
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: Offering complete, up-to-date coverage of the primary subject areas in range management, this book brings the concepts of rangeland management into clear focus establishing important fundamentals and perspectives of key subjects in the field, and helping rangeland managers and laymen broaden their overall education in natural resource use and management using the most recent scientific reports.<p>Provides current information and approaches on dealing with modern range management problems in the U.S. as well as developing countries. It also includes management strategies for various range types, and detailed discussions on multiple use of rangeland. Looks at the latest data on practical range management problems, offering useful approaches for setting stocking rates, and analyzes rangeland economics and ranch management using the most up-to-date research.
  • Authors:
    • Campbell,Sara
    • Mooney,Siân
    • Hewlett,John P.
    • Menkhaus,Dale J.
    • Vance,George F.
  • Source: Rangelands
  • Volume: 26
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: Carbon credits can be created on rangelands at costs that are competitive with credits from cropland and forestry, revealing that ranchers could play a role in reducing climate change.