Abstract

International treaties are being discussed to reduce the effect of global warming believed to be the result of releasing carbon into the atmosphere. The flux of carbon in the air can be reduced by either (1) reducing the processes that produce the emissions or by (2) removing carbon from the air through some remediation process. One process that is being considered is terrestrial carbon sequestration. Here plants would be grown on lands that otherwise have low growth. Plant growth will remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in the first meter of soil. Estimates have indicated that the amount of carbon that can be sequestered in this way is substantial.

© 2002 Optical Society of America