Study measures carbon storage in grasslands

Grasslands cover a vast area of the UK, forming the backbone of the livestock industry. However they also play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, storing vast amounts of carbon beneath them in their soils.

New research is being carried out by scientists from the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University to work out how much carbon is being stored in UK grasslands and find out if it could potentially store even more. This would contribute to climate-change mitigation, because carbon locked in soils isn’t being released into the atmosphere where it contributes to global warming.

Teams of scientists from the universities of Lancaster and Reading, and North Wyke Research, have begun sampling a large number of sites across England, including grasslands in the Lake District at Glenridding, Grasmere, Thirlmere, the Newlands Valley and Skiddaw, and in the Yorkshire Dales.

The five-year study − funded by a £650,000 grant from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs − will improve understanding of how grassland can be managed to protect carbon stored in soil.