ABSTRACT:
This paper provides a method for estimating the marginal cost of soil carbon (C) derived from setting aside highly erodible cropland in the United States. Increases in soil carbon are estimated using a modified Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change soil organic carbon inventory method and National Resources Inventory data. Marginal costs of soil carbon sequestration activities are based on the opportunity cost of removing highly erodible land from crop production using land rental rates adjusted to account for the productivity of cropland and Conservation Reserve Program rental rates. Total soil carbon sequestration from setting aside highly erodible land is over 10 Tg C yr−1 (11.0 Mtn C yr−1) on the 21.9 Mha (54.1 Mac) where corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean, wheat, or fallow were grown in 1997. The marginal cost of stored carbon based on these estimates range from $11 to $4,492 Mg−1 C ($10 to $4,075 tn−1 C) with a US weighted average of $288 Mg−1 C ($261tn−1 C). Changes in US crop production levels from removing land from crop production are also estimated.
Footnotes
Mark Sperow is an assistant professor, Division of Resource Management, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.
- Copyright 2007 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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