Soil Organic Carbon Preservation and Sequestration in European Agricultural Soils: an Overview

The decrease of fertility in European soils is fully recognized both from the scientific arena and from the institutional bodies. Soil Organic Matter (SOM) decline is on the agenda of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection of the European Commission and the implementation of pilot Long Term Experiments (LTE) to detect Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) changes are considerably increasing. Several are the bodies that in the past have started national inventories of forested areas, REDD mechanism is nonstop aiming to reduce emissions from forest, and the role of peatlands in climate change has been widely debated. While the integration of agricultural soils, climate change influence and food security in Europe is a topic under investigation. Fighting hunger in a sustainable way is on the agenda of the European Union food security policy and the Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) role is to build a cross-disciplinary approach between the science and policy to take actions. Several studies on SOC changes and the best management for C sequestration are continuously appearing, but how to deal with a growing population and the related food demand in the context of a climate change scenario is unknown. The following paper gives an overview of the activities carried out in the JRC - SOIL Action with a specific focus on the agricultural soils and their content in Organic Carbon (OC). In the Appendix a short paragraph cover the potential application of nuclear and isotopic techniques to support the knowledge of SOM and OC sequestration dynamics.

BAMPA Francesca;  AKSOY Ece;  GUICHARNAUD Rannveig Anna;  HIEDERER Roland;  JONES Arwyn;  LUGATO Emanuele;  MACAIGNE Peggy;  MONTANARELLA Luca;  NOCITA Marco;  PANAGOS Panagiotis;  TOTH Gergely; 

Bampa F, Aksoy E, Guicharnaud R, Hiederer R, Jones A, Lugato E, Macaigne P, Montanarella L, Nocita M, Panagos P, Toth G. Soil Organic Carbon Preservation and Sequestration in European Agricultural Soils: an Overview. In Conference Proceedings: L.K. Heng, K. Sakadevan, G. Dercon and M.L. Nguyen, editors. Managing Soils for Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. Rome (Italy): Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 2014. p. 223-229. JRC75894

2015-01-19

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

JRC75894

978-92-5-108552-3,