Growing spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) organically in greenhouses can reduce greenhouse gas emissions

With the South Korean government announcing its carbon neutrality policy for 2050, greenhouse gas reduction and soil conservation in agriculture are being emphasized.Greenhouse cultivation is rapidly developing for vegetable production and pest control, and is expected to increase further to prevent disasters such as extreme weather events caused by global warming.In this study, we investigated the differences in soil carbon stocks and global warming potential (GWP) between greenhouse cultivation methods.We divided spinach cultivation into organic (OF) and conventional (CF) farming.The GWP of OF was 14.2 tons CO 2 -eq.ha -1 , which was 70% level of CF's 20.3 tons CO 2 -eq.ha -1 .Soil organic carbon storage (SOCS) was 27.39 ton C ha -1 for CF and 19.89 ton C ha -1 for OF, with OF accounting for 72.6% of the SOCS in CF, but not statistically significant.When SOC was analyzed by water-extractable carbon and hot-water extractable carbon, there were no significant differences between treatments, but the humic acid / fulvic acid ratio was 2.2 times higher in OF, humification ratio was 93.71% in OF and 96.82% in CF, and the soil microbial content was higher in OF.Although the results of this study are limited by the analysis after one season of spinach cultivation in a greenhouse, it is expected that organic farming can increase soil organic carbon storage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in long-term experiments.