Turfgrass scientists visit a sod farm during the first day of activities at the Crop Science Society of America meeting in November in San Antonio. Later in the week, they discussed carbon sequestration and carbon-emitting practices on a golf course, including mowing, fertilizing, aerification and irrigation. Photo by Darrell J. Pehr
Turfgrass scientists gathered in San Antonio for their annual meeting in November, and one of the top topics was the ability of turfgrass to capture carbon from the atmosphere, as well as superintendents’ ability to maximize this beneficial process and reduce golf’s carbon footprint.
One symposium during the meeting of the Crop Science Society of America — “Research Opportunities for Carbon Accounting in Turfgrass Systems” — included four experts who gave an update on current research and sketched out what may happen next. That look into the future is especially relevant to golf course superintendents, whose practices can make a big difference in how much the benefits of capturing atmospheric carbon are outweighed by the carbon emissions produced by the establishment and maintenance of the turf. The more superintendents can reduce the amount of carbon emissions produced by activities such as mowing, irrigation, fertilization, aerification, etc., the better for net carbon sequestration. The good news is that golf courses already are typically capturing more carbon than they are producing carbon emissions. The trick is to boost that benefit.
Speakers were Ross Braun, Ph.D., of Kansas State University; Ruying Wang, Ph.D., of Oregon State University; Michael Bekken, Ph.D., researcher for the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy; and Peter Arbuckle, Ph.D., chief of the Scientific Data Management Branch of the Knowledge Services Division, USDA Agricultural Research Service.
Their presentations provided an introduction to turfgrass systems’ role in greenhouse gases and a summary of research that already has been done on this topic; an outline of the carbon balance between the capture of carbon in turfgrass weighed against the production of carbon dioxide when maintaining turfgrass; a discussion of various methods of estimating the carbon balance at golf courses; and an overview of public data for carbon accounting in turfgrass systems.
The symposium also produced a set of guidelines and recommendations for superintendents hoping to help make a difference. Braun noted the importance of educating turfgrass practitioners on ways to communicate the ecosystem benefits of turfgrass to the public, as well as how to implement practices to promote soil carbon sequestration, reduce emissions and enhance ecosystem services. Turfgrass scientists, too, need to help spread the word.
“Turfgrass is a sink, even when we figure in these hidden carbon costs of maintenance practices,” Braun said. “This is super important, as turfgrass scientists, that we are communicating this to the public. We know that turfgrass has a lot of benefits and a lot of ecosystem services, and carbon sequestration is really one of the big ones that we need to be advocating for and talking to our policymakers or decisionmakers, especially in urban settings.”
Wang gave specific, hands-on techniques to tip the carbon scale further in favor of turfgrass: Best management practices should include fertilizing when grass is growing and returning clippings; to reduce emissions in the irrigation process, more focus is needed on breeding and utilizing heat- and drought-tolerant turfgrass varieties, and recycled water should be used as often as possible; and mowing with high-fuel-efficient/electric mowers also will cut carbon emissions.
Bekken noted that even when using electric mowers and other equipment, the source of the electricity also can make a big difference. Is the electricity produced in a low-carbon manner, such as from on-site solar panels or electricity from the grid from wind turbines? He suggested that electric autonomous mowing of fairways and roughs on golf courses will be an essential practice of the future.
“Actually, this year in Sweden, 80 different golf courses installed electric, autonomous mowers for fairway mowing,” he noted. “The main reason for that is labor costs, so it makes a lot of common sense to do this, but it also makes a lot of carbon sense to do this.”
Braun wrapped up with next steps, including the need for more soil data from a variety of turfgrass systems, to include net carbon sequestration rates that consider hidden carbon costs; the need to better understand soil carbon loss and sequestration over time; and the need to study carbon in fairways, roughs, home lawns and other large-area turfgrass systems.
For superintendents, the message may be to do what you can when you can and to keep an eye on new research that may give more guidance on getting the most from turf as a tool to reduce golf’s carbon footprint.
Darrell J. Pehr is GCM’s science editor.