Turf grass can reduce University’s carbon footprint

Fertilizer, pesticides, water use, and mowing lawns and sports fields require can lead to criticism by environmentalists. But these activities may be offset by the carbon absorbed by turf.

As part of their life processes, turf grasses can store carbon above and below ground and deposit carbon into the surrounding soil. Current research in the department of crop sciences is investigating this process and its effects.

Danesha Seth Carley, a senior research scientist who collaborates with this project, explained how turf grass compares to trees in terms of the rate of carbon sequestration.

"Turf grass sequesters a quarter of the carbon that trees do… in terms of tons of carbon being sequestered per acre per year," Carley said.

According to Carley, turf grass removes about one ton of carbon from the atmosphere per hectare every year. By these numbers, a college football field sequesters approximately half a ton of carbon each year.

Over the past three years, Tom Rufty, professor of crop science, has collaborated with his colleagues to research the amount of carbon that different turf grasses sequester in the North Carolina environment and the carbon footprints of managed landscapes.

"The way that most of the turf grass systems are coming out, they can either be positive or negative. They are right on the edge of neutrality," Rufty said. "It depends on how they are being managed and what the total inputs are."

Rufty said proper management is key.

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