Effects of a tree row on greenhouse gas fluxes, growing conditions and soil microbial communities on an oat field in Southern Finland

Agricultural ecosystems are facing critical loss of biodiversity, soil nutrients, and cultural values. Intensive crop production has caused landscape homogenisation, with trees and hedges increasingly disappearing from agricultural land. Changes in farming practices are essential to increase biodiversity and improve soil biogeochemical processes, such as nutrient cycling, soil carbon uptake, and sequestration, as well as to improve the resilience and fertility of farming systems. Agroforestry is an important practice for implementing and improving natural and cultural value of landscapes, but in northern countries, agroforestry methods remain rarely utilised. Our study was conducted in Southern Finland on an agricultural field where a row of willow and alder was planted 6 years prior to our study. We concentrated on the effects of the tree row on crop growing conditions and how far from the trees possible impacts can be observed. We studied soil properties, carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) exchange, and soil microbial communities. The impact of trees on crop growing conditions, biomass production, and greenhouse gas fluxes was modest and did not extend further than few meters from the tree row in the warm and dry growing season of 2019. N2O and CH4 fluxes were negligible and the tree row did not increase greenhouse gas emissions from soil. Soil microbial diversity was clearly improved by the presence of trees due to more diverse habitats. The tree row also slightly decreased the estimated annual net emissions of carbon into the atmosphere. Due to positive indications of the effects of agroforestry on biodiversity and carbon uptake, we highly recommend further studies within various agroforestry practices in Nordic countries

Carbon guide : An outlook on carbon in soil and on carbon cultivation

202

Suoraan mikrometeorologiseen vuomittausmenetelmään perustuva hiilitase maatalouskäytössä olevilla nurmimailla

Modern intensive agriculture is globally the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, after industry and fossil fuel combustion, contributing more than 10% to the greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional intensive management practices are the main cause of high emissions from agriculture. Frequent ploughing, monocropping, intensive use of agrochemicals, and deforestation are the main contributors to the loss of soil organic matter and CO2 emissions from land use. At the same time as modern agriculture is being a significant emission source, one of the most potential tools to mitigate climate change is the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere into the agricultural soils. It is well known that topsoil layer and especially humus-rich mineral soils can store more carbon than atmosphere and vegetation together. Therefore, increasing the amount of SOM in the agroecosystems, by applying enhanced management practices such as reduced tillage, high biodiversity and cover cropping, agricultural soils would not only help to mitigate climate change but also to restore soil quality and fertility. In this study, carbon balance of a grass field located in southern Finland was studied over an 8-month period in 2018. Based on the micrometeorological flux data and biomass measurements, an annual carbon balance was estimated. Even though the growing season was dry, the forage grassland growing on mineral soil was a net carbon sink in 2018 with net carbon sequestration of –39 g C m–2 yr–1. However, the seasonal CO2 fluxes were greatly dependent on weather conditions and management options. Conversely, results from an agricultural peat soil grassland in southern Finland used as a comparison site show that the carbon inputs are not likely to exceed the outputs on peat soils, and therefore, such fields have a high tendency of causing net CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.Moderni intensiivinen maatalous on maailmanlaajuisesti toisiksi suurin ihmisen aiheuttama hiilidioksidipäästöjen lähde heti teollisuuden ja fossiilisten polttoaineiden jälkeen. Maatalous aiheuttaa yli 10% kasvihuonekaasupäästöistä. Pääosin maatalouden korkeat päästöt johtuvat tavanomaisista viljelymenetelmistä, joihin lukeutuvat säännöllinen kyntäminen, monokulttuuri, maatalouskemikaalien intensiivinen käyttö sekä metsien hävittäminen peltomaan tieltä. Nämä toimenpiteet edistävät maan orgaanisen aineen hajoamista aiheuttaen CO2 päästöjä ilmakehään. Samalla, kun moderni maatalous on merkittävä päästölähde, yksi potentiaalisimmista keinoista hillitä ilmastonmuutosta on hiilidioksidin varastoiminen ilmakehästä maatalousmaihin. Maan pintakerros ja erityisesti mineraalimaat, joissa humusta on runsaasti, varastoivat enemmän hiiltä kuin ilmakehä ja kasvillisuus yhteensä. Hiiltä sitovien maatalouskäytäntöjen avulla, kuten kevyemmällä muokkauksella, korkealla monimuotoisuudella ja jatkuvalla maanpeitteisyydellä, voidaan maatalousekosysteemeissä lisätä maan orgaanisen aineen määrää. Näin peltomaat eivät ainoastaan hillitse ilmastonmuutosta, vaan myös palauttavat laatunsa ja tuottavuutensa. Tässä tutkimuksessa Etelä-Suomessa sijaitsevan nurmipellon hiilitasetta tutkittiin kahdeksan kuukauden ajan vuonna 2018. Hiilitase arvioitiin perustuen mikrometeorologisiin vuodatoihin ja biomassamittauksiin. Vaikka kasvukausi oli kuiva, mineraalimaalla kasvava rehunurmipelto oli hiilinielu vuonna 2018. Sen hiilitase oli –39 g C m–2 v–1. CO2-vuot olivat kuitenkin pitkälti riippuvaisia sääolosuhteista sekä pellolla suoritetuista toimenpiteistä. Etelä-Suomessa tutkitulla nurmikasvatuksessa olevalla turvepelto-maalla, jonka tuloksia käytettiin vertailuna, tilanne oli vastakkainen. Hiilen nettositoutuminen ei osoita nettopäästöjen ylitystä turvepelloilla ja siksi ne aiheuttavat lähes poikkeuksetta vuosittain CO2-päästöjä ilmakehään

Analysis of existing risk assessments, and list of suggestions

The scope of this project was to analyse risk assessments made at CERN and extracting some crucial information about the different methodologies used, profiles of people who make the risk assessments, and gathering information of whether the risk matrix was used and if the acceptable level of risk was defined. Second step of the project was to trigger discussion inside HSE about risk assessment by suggesting a risk matrix and a risk assessment template

Effects of a tree row on greenhouse gas fluxes, growing conditions and soil microbial communities on an oat field in Southern Finland

Abstract Agricultural ecosystems are facing critical loss of biodiversity, soil nutrients, and cultural values. Intensive crop production has caused landscape homogenisation, with trees and hedges increasingly disappearing from agricultural land. Changes in farming practices are essential to increase biodiversity and improve soil biogeochemical processes, such as nutrient cycling, soil carbon uptake, and sequestration, as well as to improve the resilience and fertility of farming systems. Agroforestry is an important practice for implementing and improving natural and cultural value of landscapes, but in northern countries, agroforestry methods remain rarely utilised. Our study was conducted in Southern Finland on an agricultural field where a row of willow and alder was planted 6 years prior to our study. We concentrated on the effects of the tree row on crop growing conditions and how far from the trees possible impacts can be observed. We studied soil properties, carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and methane (CH₄) exchange, and soil microbial communities. The impact of trees on crop growing conditions, biomass production, and greenhouse gas fluxes was modest and did not extend further than few meters from the tree row in the warm and dry growing season of 2019. N₂O and CH₄ fluxes were negligible and the tree row did not increase greenhouse gas emissions from soil. Soil microbial diversity was clearly improved by the presence of trees due to more diverse habitats. The tree row also slightly decreased the estimated annual net emissions of carbon into the atmosphere. Due to positive indications of the effects of agroforestry on biodiversity and carbon uptake, we highly recommend further studies within various agroforestry practices in Nordic countries

Erilaisten nurmenviljelymenetelmien ilmastovaikutukset turvepellolla

202

Hiiliopas - katsaus maaperän hiileen ja hiiliviljelyn perusteisiin

202

The synergistic role of sulfuric acid, ammonia and organics in particle formation over an agricultural land

Agriculture provides people with food, but poses environmental challenges. Via comprehensive observations on an agricultural land at Qvidja in Southern Finland, we were able to show that soil-emitted compounds (mainly ammonia and amines), together with available sulfuric acid, form new aerosol particles which then grow to climate-relevant sizes by the condensation of extremely low volatile organic compounds originating from a side production of photosynthesis (compounds emitted by ground and surrounding vegetation). We found that intensive local clustering events, with particle formation rates at 3 nm about 5-10 times higher than typical rates in boreal forest environments, occur on around 30% of all days. The requirements for these clustering events to occur were found to be clear sky, a low wind speed to accumulate the emissions from local agricultural land, particularly ammonia, the presence of low volatile organic compounds, and sufficient gaseous sulfuric acid. The local clustering will then contribute to regional new particle formation. Since the agricultural land is much more effective per surface area than the boreal forest in producing aerosol particles, these findings provide insight into the participation of agricultural lands in climatic cooling, counteracting the climatic warming effects of farming.Peer reviewe

Towards agricultural soil carbon monitoring, reporting, and verification through the Field Observatory Network (FiON)

Better monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of the amount, additionality, and persistence of the sequestered soil carbon is needed to understand the best carbon farming practices for different soils and climate conditions, as well as their actual climate benefits or cost efficiency in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. This paper presents our Field Observatory Network (FiON) of researchers, farmers, companies, and other stakeholders developing carbon farming practices. FiON has established a unified methodology towards monitoring and forecasting agricultural carbon sequestration by combining offline and near-real-time field measurements, weather data, satellite imagery, modeling, and computing networks. FiON's first phase consists of two intensive research sites and 20 voluntary pilot farms testing carbon farming practices in Finland. To disseminate the data, FiON built a web-based dashboard called the Field Observatory (v1.0, https://www.fieldobservatory.org/, last access: 3 February 2022). The Field Observatory is designed as an online service for near-real-time model–data synthesis, forecasting, and decision support for the farmers who are able to monitor the effects of carbon farming practices. The most advanced features of the Field Observatory are visible on the Qvidja site, which acts as a prototype for the most recent implementations. Overall, FiON aims to create new knowledge on agricultural soil carbon sequestration and effects of carbon farming practices as well as provide an MRV tool for decision support