Carbon biosequestration strategies: a review
N. Nayak, Rajesh Mehrotra, Sandhya Mehrotra
Abstract
Anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) contribute to global warming. Limiting temperature rise requires negative emission techniques to retract the emitted CO2 from the atmosphere. Through photosynthesis, ecosystems naturally sequester and store carbon. Enhancing these processes forms the basis of biological sequestration strategies. Ecosystems are a sink of atmospheric CO2 and significantly impact the global carbon cycle. The fixed carbon is converted into biomass, a portion of which enters the soil carbon pool and can be sequestered for millennia. The formation of stable soil organic carbon (SOC) depends on land use, management practices, and the use of amendments. Employing best management practices and carbon boosting approaches such as conservation agriculture, agroforestry, biochar, afforestation, and restoration of wetlands can improve SOC stocks and create a positive soil carbon budget, especially in degraded ecosystems. . Carbon fixation by plants and microbes is fundamental to biological sequestration. Regulating the properties and expression of the enzymes involved and introducing novel pathways for carbon capture can enhance carbon fixation efficiency and positively affect yield. This review discusses biological carbon sequestration strategies highlighting the recent findings in the effects and potential of soil carbon boosting approaches in carbon mitigation and the prospects of genetic engineering in enhancing carbon fixation.