Carbon balance in the silvopastoral systems of Caldén forest: sources or sinks of greenhouse gases?

The savanna-type xerophytic forests of Neltuma caldenia are located bordering the Argentine humid pampas and have an area of 3 million hectares. Currently, the main economic activity is cattle breeding. The contribution of the livestock sector to greenhouse gas emissions is a cause of international concern. Agroforestry is presented as an important carbon sequestration strategy. The objective of the following work was to address, through modeling and field data, a carbon balance based on forest cover for a silvopastoral system in native forest. To do this, the herbaceous stratum was measured in different forest covers, weighted by a livestock use factor and by the estimated emissions from cattle in the region. The evolution of forest stand parameters was modeled using growth data obtained from dendrometers distributed at different tree densities. The projected values of the forest flight show that from 2.4 m 2 ha −1 of basal area (BA), the captures of eq-CO 2 in the total tree biomass exceed the emissions of livestock. If the capture of C by the stem biomass is considered, the compensation point, using the maximum emission category (lactating cow), is reached when the forest has a capture rate of 0.67 Mg C ha −1 year −1 , a stock of 38.86 Mg C ha −1 of total biomass and a density of 17.5 m 2 ha −1 of BA. It is concluded that managing the N. caldenia forest with adequate silvicultural management would allow the production of “carbon neutral meat.” The balance did not consider the capture of C on the ground.