Potential benefits of liming to acid soils on climate change mitigation and food security

Globally, about 50% of all arable soils are classified as acidic. As crop and plant growth are significantly hampered under acidic soil conditions, many farmers, but increasingly as well forest managers, apply lime to raise the soil pH. Besides its direct effect on soil pH, liming also affects soil C and nutrient cycles and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes. In this meta-analysis, we reviewed 1570 observations reported in 121 field-based studies worldwide, to assess liming effects on soil GHG fluxes and plant productivity. We found that liming significantly increases crop yield by 36.3%. Also, soil organic C (SOC) stocks were found to increase by 4.51% annually, though soil respiration is stimulated too (7.57%). Moreover, liming was found to reduce soil N2O emission by 21.3%, yield-scaled N2O emission by 21.5%, and CH4 emission and yield-scaled CH4 emission from rice paddies by 19.0% and 12.4%, respectively. Assuming that all acid agricultural soils are limed periodically, liming results in a total GHG balance benefit of 633-749 Tg CO2-eq year(-1) due to reductions in soil N2O emissions (0.60-0.67 Tg N2O-N year(-1)) and paddy soil CH4 emissions (1.75-2.21 Tg CH4 year(-1)) and increases in SOC stocks (65.7-110 Tg C year(-1)). However, this comes at the cost of an additional CO2 release (c. 624-656 Tg CO2 year(-1)) deriving from lime mining, transport and application, and lime dissolution, so that the overall GHG balance is likely neutral. Nevertheless, liming of acid agricultural soils will increase yields by at least 6.64 x 10(8) Mg year(-1), covering the food supply of 876 million people. Overall, our study shows for the first time that a general strategy of liming of acid agricultural soils is likely to result in an increasing sustainability of global agricultural production, indicating the potential benefit of liming acid soils for climate change mitigation and food security.

Automated summary

The application of lime can significantly increase crop yield and soil organic carbon stocks, while reducing soil greenhouse gas emissions. However, it also stimulates soil respiration, leading to a potentially neutral overall greenhouse gas balance.