Thread by @sofbiffi

📢New paper on planting #hedgerows for climate change mitigation

How does #hedgerow planting contribute towards reaching #NetZero?

We looked at hedge #biomass and #soil carbon storage and UK planting rates

📄authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S00…

thread ⬇️

1/9 First, a look at hedge planting numbers. We used @NaturalEngland data for planting and gapping-up in public schemes (#CountrysideStewardship &co)

👉 5265 km of hedges have been planted in 2004-2022
👉 2.6 times as many hedges were planted in 2019-2022 compared to 2004-2018

2/9 But we need to plant more! To be exact, we need +193,000 km in England to meet the goal set by @theCCCuk for #NetZero

How much CO2 would be stored in these new hedges?

at @SoGLeeds we measured aboveground #biomass carbon stock and sequestration in hedges of different ages

3/9 to measure this, we did something that no hedge lover likes doing: we destructively sampled sections of hedges

we had a great hedge layer (thanks Rob Hogarth!) doing the job right and no hedges were permanently harmed in the making of this paper😌

4/9 as hedges grow and mature, they store more carbon in their aboveground biomass.

For 40yr old hedges:
🌳 1 ha = 33.41 tonnes of C
🌳 1 km = 18.39 tonnes of CO2

Newer hedges grow fast and sequester carbon at much higher rates than older ones!

5/9 sidenote: good management of new and old hedges alike is ESSENTIAL for keeping them healthy and alive (and keep them storing carbon!)🍃✂️

check out @Hedgelink_UK hedgelink.org.uk/hedge-hub/ and @FavColour_Green if you want to know more about good hedgerow management

6/9 finally, we worked out how much CO2 would be stored in hedge biomass and in the soil under different planting scenarios:

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PS. soil carbon sequestration values were from our last paper sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

7/9 without increasing planting rates, only 1.3% of CO2 emissions from agriculture can be offset by hedge planting over 40 years

Meeting @theCCCuk goal by 2050 would sequester 10.13 megatons of CO2 over 40 years, offsetting 4.5% of CO2 emissions from agriculture each year

8/9 We are one the right path towards @theCCCuk goal of +40% hedge length, but still must increase planting and gapping-up rate from 1778 km/yr to 7148 km/yr !

‼️ #hedgerow planting efforts need to increase fourfold

Maybe the doubled #CountrysideStewardship payment will help?🤔

9/9 huge thank you to @chapmanpippa @rggeo @drguyziv for co-authoring this work! and thanks to @FoodSecurityUK @BBSRC for the support

here is the link to the #openaccess paper: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…