Reappraisal of the place of cultivated plants in the carbon budget

Carbon Budget and Climate Change

The preprint "Reappraisal of the place of cultivated plants in the carbon budget" challenges the current paradigm of carbon budget accounting within the broader climate change discourse. The established paradigm largely neglects the carbon capture and storage contribution of annual crops, focusing primarily on perennial plants and geological carbon capture and storage (CCS). This preprint questions this fundamental assumption and proposes a revised model that incorporates the significant carbon capture potential of annual crops, leading to a vastly different picture of the carbon cycle and, potentially, the contribution of agriculture to climate change mitigation. The core arguments and evidence presented, although potentially paradigm-shifting if validated by the scientific community, do not yet represent a complete Model Revolution, but rather a drift within the current model, since they still operate within the existing framework of carbon accounting and atmospheric CO2 budgets. The substantial revisions to established calculations and assumptions, however, signify a substantial challenge to the current understanding. Therefore, its classification is better suited as Model Drift, with the potential to evolve into a Model Revolution if its claims are corroborated by future research and gain wider acceptance.