Abstract
Afforestation is one of the most promising measures to mitigate global climate change because the expected carbon stock is estimated at as much as tens of tons per hectare or more. However, possible large-scale afforestation areas are limited to unused or ineffectively-used arid type lands. In the present study, a hardpan layer in Western Australia in an arid zone with no remarkable vegetation, a land type which is often found in the arid zones of the world, was blasted to produce holes and cracks for water penetration and root development. This study shows that hardpan blasting drastically accelerated root development and tree growth one or two years after planting. The blasting was done with additional CO2 emission of only one fortieth of the CO2 expected to be absorbed by trees after maturity.
