Pistachio production is concentrated in dry and semi-dry regions where long-lived woody vegetation can contribute to climate-change mitigation while supporting farm income and landscape stability. Yet the carbon-sequestration literature for pistachio is much thinner than the language often used to describe the crop as a carbon sink. This critical review separates three related but distinct evidence streams: direct measurements of biomass or soil carbon in pistachio systems, life-cycle and greenhouse-gas assessments of pistachio production, and indirect evidence from other perennial tree crops. The available studies show that pistachio orchards and natural Pistacia woodlands contain meaningful carbon pools in woody biomass and soil, but they do not support a universal sequestration rate for the species. Carbon outcomes depend on stand age and structure, soil depth and texture, water availability, ground-cover management, residue handling, irrigation energy, fertilizer use and the persistence of healthy trees. The evidence also highlights a methodological problem: carbon stock, annual sequestration and product carbon footprint are frequently treated as interchangeable, although they answer different questions. Direct pistachio studies on soil organic carbon, canopy-based biomass estimation and seasonal carbon allocation are therefore interpreted separately from life-cycle studies that quantify management emissions. Evidence from olive, hazelnut and mixed orchard systems is used only to inform methodology and plausible management responses, not as a substitute for pistachio-specific data. For Central Asian drylands, the highest research priority is repeated, paired measurement of tree biomass and soil organic carbon in cultivated orchards and well-characterized natural stands, combined with management inventories, remote sensing and explicit uncertainty analysis. A standardized framework of this kind would allow pistachio to be evaluated credibly as part of regional carbon-farming and land-restoration strategies.

Pistacia vera, pistachio orchard, carbon sequestration

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