Global Grazinglands and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes

Abstract

Grazinglands, vegetated land that is grazed or has the potential to be grazed by wild and/or domestic ungulates, occupy about half of the world’s surface, provide livelihoods to almost one billion people, and constitute a major component of the global carbon stock and cycle. Grazinglands have significant potential for mitigation of climate change in the short term, and management practices that lead to mitigation are fairly well known. However, the degree to which this mitigation potential is realized pivots on our ability to design cost-effective protocols to promote the implementation of such management practices. In order to create efficient protocols we need a deeper and more precise knowledge of the processes and factors that affect greenhouse gas (GHG; mainly CO2, N2O, and CH4) fluxes and carbon (C) stocks in grazinglands.