Soil Carbon Capture Sequestration:
The Ecology & Function of Soil

Restoring Biodiversity to Agricultural Soils

Soil can function as a carbon ‘source’ - adding carbon to the atmosphere - or a carbon ‘sink’ - removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The dynamics of the source-sink equation are largely determined by land management.

Over millennia a highly effective carbon cycle has evolved, in which the capture, storage, transfer, release and recapture of biochemical energy in the form of carbon compounds repeats over and over. The health of the soil - and the vitality of plants, animals and people - depends on the effective functioning of this cycle.

The potential for reversing the net movement of CO2 to the atmosphere through improved plant and soil management is significant. Indeed, managing vegetative cover in ways that enhance the capacity of soil to sequester and store large volumes of atmospheric carbon in a stable form offers a practical and almost immediate solution to some of the most challenging issues currently facing humankind.

The use of fossil fuel based chemicals supporting monocrop practices have also caused significant harm to the soil microbiome resulting in the loss of topsoil, biodiversity, water pollution, disruption of the water cycle. It is not sustainable, and technology based ‘solutions’ to continue monoculture practices are unproven, costly, and neglect the socioeconomic impact they have on the entire food system.