Estimating the carbon storage potential and greenhouse gas emissions of French arable cropland using high‐resolution modeling

Many studies have assessed the potential of agricultural practices to sequester carbon (C). A comprehensive evaluation impacts requires not only considering C storage but also direct and indirect emissions greenhouse gases (GHG) their side effects (e.g., on water cycle or production). We used a high-resolution modeling approach with Simulateur mulTIdisciplinaire pour les Cultures Standard soil-crop model quantify soil organic (SOC) potential, GHG balance, biomass production nitrogen- water-related for all arable land in France current cropping systems (baseline scenario) three mitigation scenarios: (i) spatial temporal expansion cover crops, (ii) insertion extension temporary grasslands (two sub-scenarios) (iii) improved recycling resources as fertilizer. In baseline scenario, SOC decreased slightly over 30 years crop-only rotations increased significantly crop/temporary grassland rotations. Results highlighted strong trade-off between rate per unit area (kg ha−1 year−1) scenarios areas which they could be applied. As result, while most promising scenario at field scale was (+466 kg year−1 stored depth 0.3 m compared baseline, 0.68 Mha), national scale, it by far crops (+131 year−1, 17.62 Mha). Side crop production, irrigation nitrogen varied greatly depending situation. At combining mitigate 54% (−11.2 from 20.5 Mt CO2e year−1), remaining would still lie objective C-neutral agriculture.