Check dams and storages beyond trapping sediment, carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Global warming as a result of increased greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentration in the atmosphere is threating the existence of life on earth. Reducing the concentration of such gases with sequestering mechanism on the surface of the land helps to treat the problem. One of such methods is trapping carbon in the form of soil organic carbon (SOC) together with sediments, by implementing sediment trapping practices. Direct field measurements, calculations and laboratory analysis were used. Results: The result shows that sediment storage dams (SSDs) sequestered/trapped ~ 60.97*10 3 t of sediment with the SOC content ranged from 14 to 87 g kg − 1 and check dams (CDs) trapped 7.8*10 3 t of sediment with the SOC content ranged from 20 to 290 g kg − 1 . In general, the studied SSDs and CDs sequestered ~ 44.68*10 5 kg of SOC together with ~ 68.8*10 6 kg of sediment. In this study, SSDs and CDs were found to be important SOC sequestering practices together with sediments. Conclusions: Thus, it is concluded that soil and water conservation structures can be used as carbon sequestering methods to reduce the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere in addition to reducing soil erosion.