**6. Challenges of carbon sequestration in soils**

Although there are a lot of opportunities in leveraging carbon stock and sequestration potential in the soil of different ecosystems, there are numerous challenges making this difficult in reality. Some of these challenges include:

	- **i.** Passive, recalcitrant or refractory pool: organic carbon held in this pool has a very long residence time ranging from decades to thousands of years.
	- **ii.** Active, labile or fast pool: carbon held in this pool stays in the soil for much shorter period due to fast decomposition. The residence time normally ranges from 1 day to a year.

**iii.** Slow, stable or humus pool: carbon held in this pool has long turnover time due to slow rate of decomposition. The residence time typically ranges from 1 year to a decade.

• Crop residue management

• Perennial cropping systems

There has been increasing interest on carbon capture and storage in the soils of different ecosystems as a climate mitigation measure. However, enhancing the carbon stock of soils also have ancillary benefits such as improving soil health and productivity, water retention, fertility enhancement among others. Although, theoretically this idea sounds appealing, however it is difficult to operationalize it in practice due to a number of challenges. Some of these include difficulties in measurement of soil carbon stock, permanence, carbon pools with different carbon residence times, separation, the tendency of the soil to reach saturation level when the maximum attainable carbon that could be captured is reached. Advances have been made in tackling most of these challenges, however, deliberate actions to enhance carbon capture and sequestration in the soil ecosystem is yet to get wide acceptance by practitioners and policy makers alike. This chapter is written in an attempt to create more awareness on the potential of soils in capturing and storing atmospheric CO2

long lived pools thereby mitigating climate change in the process. Researchers should also work assiduously in finding solutions to the challenges making widespread adoption of this

, Mohamad Isma'il Shaharudin<sup>1</sup>

Carbon Sequestration in Soils: The Opportunities and Challenges

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79347

11

\*, Chamhuri Siwar1

1 Institute of Environment and Development, National University of Malaysia, Bangi,

2 Department of Environmental Management Technology, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

3 Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Malaysia (UKM), Bangi,

\*Address all correspondence to: caabdullahi@atbu.edu.ng

in

and

• Application of farmyard manure • Application of inorganic fertilizers

• Cover cropping

• Rotational grazing

**8. Conclusion**

initiative difficult.

**Author details**

Isahak Anizan<sup>3</sup>

Selangor, Malaysia

Selangor, Malaysia

Ahmed Chinade Abdullahi2

University Bauchi, Nigeria

• Etc.

