Carbon storage in coffee agroforestry systems: A bibliometric analysis and meta-analysis

Coffee is grown in some 75 countries, in which about 25 million people depend directly on coffee production for their livelihoods, with 70% of the labor being performed by women. Coffee cultivation systems based on agroforestry systems (CAFS) provide ecosystem services, such as carbon (C) storage. To identify the potential and opportunities for sequestration and storage of C in different coffee production systems, we selected 84 publications from indexed journals (Scopus and Web of Science) for the period 2006–2022 and applied a bibliometric analysis and meta-analysis. During the period 2006–2022, a total of 1,694 citations were recorded. We counted the countries of the corresponding authors, finding that the United States of America, Brazil, and Mexico are identified as the three nationalities with the highest number of publications. A mean total carbon content, considering both biomass and soil, of 178.9 ± 36.6 MgC ha ^− 1 is recorded, with soil organic carbon (SOC) being the component with the highest C content, at 105.4 ± 48.0 MgC ha ^− 1 , followed by aboveground C in trees with 45.2 ± 35.3 MgC ha ^− 1 . We found 156 multipurpose perennial species used in the shade layer, with the genera Albizia, Cordia, Erythrina, Ficus, Inga, Musa, Persea , and Terminalia as the most representative in CAFS. Information about this ecosystem service offered by CAFS could be considered not only to improve the sustainability of the crop, but also to obtain competitive advantages in the marketing of coffee that may contribute to the development of coffee producers around the world.