The Role of Agriculture in Climate Change Mitigation

According to IPCC reports, one of the greatest threats to the Earth ecosystems is climate change caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide, mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels, cement production and land-use change which leads to an excessive temperature rise. Agriculture and forestry are responsible for quiet big emissions of greenhouse gases: CO2, CH4 and N2O, and have significant potential to reduce these emissions mainly through enhancement of CO2 absorption by terrestrial ecosystems.

To evaluate the impact of agriculture on climate change, ruminant farming should be also taken into account. These animals emit considerable amounts of methane which has strong greenhouse effects. Methane emissions may be reduced by using appropriate feed for ruminants. Decreasing the meat consumption of these animals can also make an important contribution to reducing methane emissions.

The methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through appropriate management of terrestrial ecosystems and animal husbandry are widely discussed in The Role of Agriculture in Climate Change Mitigation. The book will be of interest to academics, professionals and policy makers in environmental sciences.

Lucjan Pawlowski, born in Poland in 1946, is the Member of the Polish Academy of Science, Member of the European Academy of Science and Arts, honorary professor of China Academy of Science, President of Environmental Engineering Committee of the Polish Academy of Science. Director of the Institute of Environmental Protection Engineering of the Lublin University of Technology. He got his Ph.D. in 1976, and D.Sc. (habilitation) in 1980 both at the Wroclaw University of Technology). He started research on the application of ion exchange for water and wastewater treatment. As a result he together with B. Bolto from CSIRO Australia, has published a book "Wastewater Treatment by Ion Exchange" in which they summarized their own results and experience of the ion exchange area. He has published 22 books, over 168 papers, and authored 108 patents, and is a member of the editorial board of numerous international and national scientific and technical journals.

Zygmunt Litwinczuk, born in Poland, is the Rector of Lublin University of Life Sciences and the head of the Department of Cattle Breeding and Protection of Genetic Resources. His scientific interests are concentrated mainly on the protection of genetic resources of indigenous cattle breeds (Polish Red, Whiteback) and controlling of emission from ruminants. Professor Litwinczuk published over 700 publications, including over 300 original works and more than 20 monographs and handbooks.

Guomo Zhou, Ph.D., was born in China, 1961. He received his Ph.D. from Zhejiang University in 2006 and served as the president of Zhejiang A&F University from 2008 to 2017. Currently he is the chancellor of the Zhejiang A&F University, director of the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, and honorary professor of Lublin University of Technology of Poland. He systematically clarified the scientific issue of whether bamboo forest is a carbon source or a carbon sink, which resolved the international dispute on the source and sink, and allowed the bamboo forest to be included in the international forest emission reduction category. He has developed an ecosystem management technology for increasing bamboo forest carbon stocks, reducing carbon emission and stabilizing soil carbon stocks. The technology was listed as "the national key promotion of low carbon technology". He has developed two methodologies for the bamboo forest carbon sequestration project which solved the technical bottleneck of bamboo forest carbon sequestration project when entering the carbon emission reduction market. He has published 103 papers in journals indexed with SCI, making him the worldwide highest productive and most influenced author in the area of bamboo carbon sequestration. As an expert on forest carbon sequestration, he has given keynotes at the side event of the UNFCCC/COP for six times and submitted two technical reports since 2009 in Copenhagen and served as an evaluator for the IPCC Assessment Report for Climate Change.