Soils as an Instrument for Managing Climate Change with Dr. Rattan Lal, Ohio State University

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Show Notes & Resources Mentioned:

Contact Information:

Contact Dr. Rattan Lal via email at lal.1@osu.edu.

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Episode Transcription:

Drew Lyon: Hello. Welcome to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. I’m your host, Drew Lyon, and I want to thank you for joining me as we explore the world of small grains production and research at Washington State University. In each episode, I speak with researchers from WSU and the USDA-ARS to provide you with insights into the latest research on wheat and barley production. If you enjoy the WSU Wheat Beat podcast do us a favor and subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app and leave us a review while you’re there so others can find the show too.

[ Music ]

Drew Lyon: My guest today is Professor Rattan Lal. Dr. Lal is a distinguished professor of soil science, and director of Ohio State University’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center. Dr. Lal was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when that organization won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded the 2018 World Agriculture Prize, and the 2018 World Soil Prize. Dr. Lal has authored or co-authored more than 1,700 research journal publications, and 22 books. He’s a leading voice on issues related to climate change and soil carbon, soil degradation and restoration, food security, environmental quality, and sustainability. Dr. Lal was in Pullman in late January, and delivered a presentation titled, “Soil and Global Issues: Solutions Underfoot.” It is my distinct pleasure to welcome Professor Lal to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. Hello, Rattan.

Dr. Rattan Lal: Thank you.

Drew Lyon: So, what is soil carbon sequestration? We hear this term all the time. How do you describe it?

Dr. Rattan Lal: Well the carbon sequestration in soil means taking CO2 from the atmosphere, and through plant growth, putting the biomass back into the soil, so that the soil organic carbon stock can be increased. When you put the biomass carbon, it can also release carbon dioxide through microbial decomposition, and carbon dioxide can be dissolved in water in soil, make carbonic acid, and carbonic acid, when it reacts with calcium, magnesium, potassium, and other cations then it forms carbonates. So that is also carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is organic carbon as humus and inorganic carbon as secondary carbonates. And in climates such as here, in the Palouse region, both mechanisms exist.

Drew Lyon: Okay. I’ve heard a lot about the organic end, but not so much about the inorganic form.

Dr. Rattan Lal: Indeed. Arid climate and irrigated agriculture, inorganic is also an important component.

Drew Lyon: Okay. Very interesting. So we also hear the term quite a bit now, “soil health”. How does soil health relate to carbon sequestration?

Dr. Rattan Lal: Good point. There are two terms: soil quality and functionality, and soil health. Soil quality and functionality means what soil does. For example, crop production or timber production on grazing. These are the functions of the soil. So the capacity of the soil to produce equal system services is soil quality. When you look at the soil as a living entity, because soil is a very large reservoir of biota, microorganism, major organism, macro-organism,  earthworms, termites, and of course the microbiota, then soil behaves like a living entity. In other words, soil is a living biomass. Soil supports life, and life is supported by soil. So when I look at a soil as a living entity, and how it function as a living organism, then we are talking about soil health. And one part which is very important is that the health of soil, plants, animal, people, and environment is one and indivisible. And one of the strong determinants soil health is soil organic carbon. In temperate region soil, such as here in the midwest and Great Plains region, about 2% of organic carbon in the root zone is considered a threshold value. If it goes below that, some ecosystem substances may be jeopardized, and the relationship between the two.

Drew Lyon: Okay. And we do have some soils in this part of the world that are less than 2%.

Dr. Rattan Lal: Certainly, and I know soil in South Asia and West Africa, that is less than .1%.

Drew Lyon Oh my.

Dr. Rattan Lal: And therefore the ecosystem services, and the use efficiency of irrigation and fertilizers, and even the potential of improved varieties is not realized.

Drew Lyon: Okay. You mentioned ecosystem services. Could you explain what some of those might be?

Dr. Rattan Lal: Well, soil are used for producing food, feed, fiber, fuel, and many other material filtering of water. Sequestering of carbon to mitigate climate change. All of those are example ecosystem services. And they depend on soil health. And an important indicator of soil health is organic carbon, which as I said, should be around 2% in the root zone. And when it declines very severely by erosion, and plowing especially, then those services are jeopardized.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So is soil management a solution to adaption to climate change? I think I know the answer to it, but can you tell us how?

Dr. Rattan Lal: Well, yes. In the pre-industrial era, the carbon dioxide concentration atmosphere is what, 280 parts per million. As of today, it’s more than 410 parts per million. Consequently, the temperature of the Earth has increased by almost 1.1 degree. More than 1 degree centigrade. Very rapid change has happened since last few decades. If the rate of change of temperature is more than .1 degree centigrade per decade, we call it global warming.

Drew Lyon: Okay.

Dr. Rattan Lal: So human-induced global warming is a problem. Last year, in 2018, for example, human combustion, the fossil fuel, about 10 gigaton of carbon emitted in the atmosphere. Deforestation and other agricultural land use change was another 1.5. So we emit 11.5 gigaton of carbon in the atmosphere. If we can sequester some of it back in the soil, and vegetation, the land can become a major sink of the anthropogenic mission. I think the potential is about 2.5 to 3 gigaton a year in forest and soil together. So soil and agriculture, managed properly, is a solution to climate change mitigation. And it’s a win-win situation. Win-win because we can’t do without food. We can’t do without water. And at the same time, while we are achieving those, then it also mitigates climate change.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So soils can be an important instrument in managing global climate change.

Dr. Rattan Lal: Absolutely.

Drew Lyon: Okay.

Dr. Rattan Lal: And that part should be recognized not only by farmers, because they are the stewards of the natural resources, but also policy makers. So they can provide incentive to farmer to make agriculture and soil a solution to climate change.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So how can soil be used to advance the sustainable development goals of the United Nations?

Dr. Rattan Lal: Well, the United Nation in 2015 started agenda called Agenda 2030, which has 17 goals. And one of the first goal of that is end poverty. Goal number 1. Second goal is zero hunger by 2030. Goal number 6 is the water and sanitation. Goal number 13 is climate action. Goal number 15 is life on land. So all these 1, 2, 6, 13, 15 goals are essentially based on how land and soil and agriculture can be managed to improve productivity, farmers’ income, sustainability, sequestered carbon in soil, conserve water, free the water so that the algal bloom anoxia does not happen. Increase biodiversity, sequester carbon both organic and inorganic to mitigate climate change, and then life on land means increase biodiversity. So United Nation has also come up with a program called Land and Degradation Neutrality. So UN Convention to Combat Desertification, organization based in Bahn, Germany. They have said by 2030, every county should have a goal of land degradation neutrality. If you degrade land somewhere by erosion within a country, you must conserve and restore some very prevalent land, so that the net degradation by each country is zero. And that’s a very good part. So all of these are excellent example how soil sustainable management of land, and improved agriculture are really critical, very important to achieving those goals. They should be considered as a solution, how agriculture can become really a win-win-win option.

Drew Lyon: Alright. I know of– I’m a bit of a fan of history, and if you read history, many civilizations have perished because they haven’t taken care of land.

Dr. Rattan Lal: Absolutely. Mayan, Incans, the Mesopotamians, and Indus Valley, they all perished. Once very thriving civilization, because they ignored the land resources. They took soils for granted. And this civilization, which I call carbon civilization, since 1750 to current era, I think must learn from those past lessons, and mend our ways. That we respect soil and natural resources, do not take it for granted, and we always improve, restore, and use it prudently and judiciously.

Drew Lyon: I couldn’t agree with you more. So if our listeners want to learn a little bit more about what you do at the Ohio State University’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, do you have a website or something they could go to?

Dr. Rattan Lal: We do. We do. We have a website. We also have a quarterly newsletter, and the website is– you can see our accomplishments. We have the global network. I have been very privileged, very fortunate, we had 112 graduate students work with us. We had 175 visiting scholars, who are scientists, who came to us from other countries, including South America, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, from Europe, Norway especially, Iceland, Spain, Asia, India, China, Pakistan. One hundred-seventy of them. And they bring their wisdom to us. We learn from them, and then they go back, we help develop a common program together. So we have a global network, about 360 scientists trying to make soil and agriculture solution to adaptation mitigation climate change, including food security. And nutrition security.

Drew Lyon: So what is the web address? Is it a simple one we can put–

Dr. Rattan Lal:  CMAS–

Drew Lyon: What is that?

Dr. Rattan Lal: Ohio State webpage will have a link to CMASC, Carbon Management and Sequestration Center.

Drew Lyon: Okay.

Dr. Rattan Lal: And that will take you to our newsletter, our list of publication. In fact, we just printed today, 1967 to 2019 list of our publications.

Drew Lyon: Okay.

Dr. Rattan Lal: And we have some of the video, which we have recorded my lectures and presentations, also available. So it’s a good site, and hopefully some of your audience can access it. If not, contact me at lal.1@osu.edu, and we would like to send them to you.

Drew Lyon: Okay. We’ll get that web address and email address in our show notes.

Dr. Rattan Lal: Thank you.

Drew Lyon: Thank you very much for your time, Dr. Lal. I appreciate having you here.

Dr. Rattan Lal: Thank you.

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Drew Lyon: Thanks for joining us and listening to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. If you like what you hear don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. If you have questions or topics, you’d like to hear on future episodes please email me at drew.lyon — that’s lyon@wsu.edu –(drew.lyon@wsu.edu). You can find us online at smallgrains.wsu.edu and on Facebook and Twitter @WSUSmallGrains. The WSU Wheat Beat podcast is a production of CAHNRS Communications and the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. I’m Drew Lyon, we’ll see you next time.

Categories: Podcast