Functional Land Management: Bridging the Think-Do-Gap using a multi-stakeholder science policy interface

peer-reviewedFunctional Land Management (FLM) is proposed as an integrator for sustainability policies and assesses the functional capacity of the soil and land to deliver primary productivity, water purification and regulation, carbon cycling and storage, habitat for biodiversity and recycling of nutrients. This paper presents the catchment challenge as a method to bridge the gap between science, stakeholders and policy for the effective management of soils to deliver these functions. Two challenges were completed by a wide range of stakeholders focused around a physical catchment model—(1) to design an optimised catchment based on soil function targets, (2) identify gaps to implementation of the proposed design. In challenge 1, a high level of consensus between different stakeholders emerged on soil and management measures to be implemented to achieve soil function targets. Key gaps including knowledge, a mix of market and voluntary incentives and mandatory measures were identified in challenge 2.This work was in part conducted under the Soil Quality Assessment Research (SQUARE) Project, Reference No: 13S468 funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2007–2013. This study was completed as part of the LANDMARK (LAND Management: Assessment, Research, Knowledge Base) project. LANDMARK has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 635201. This work has also received funding as part of the SoilCare project from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under Grant Agreement No. 677407

MOSYSS Project - Monitoring SYstem of Soils at multiScale. Monitoring system of physical, chemical and biological soil parameters in relation to forest and agricultural land management.

MOSYSS is a project launched in June 2010 by the Agriculture, Forestation and Fisheries Department of the Marche Region in Italy. It has been coordinated by the Regional Soil Observatory as part of the assessment activities of the Rural Development Plan (RDP) Marche 2007-2013 as laid down in the Common Monitoring and Assessment Framework. Among the objectives there is the creation of a permanent soil monitoring system for the whole Marche territory, combining technical and scientific requirements (e.g. rigor and representativeness) whilst optimizing financial and organizational resources. The information obtainable from the monitoring system could potentially be upscale, on a functional basis, in other existing soil and biodiversity monitoring networks at national and European level. The main function of the project is to investigate soils starting from their intrinsic properties ( e.g. chemical, physical or biological) to obtain a detailed evaluation of their current "quality" status, and to monitor, over time, changes in these parameters by repeating the monitoring campaign at pre-established time intervals.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

The Impact of Policy Instruments on Soil Multifunctionality in the European Union

peer-reviewedAgricultural ecosystems provide a range of benefits that are vital to human well-being. These benefits are dependent on several soil functions that are affected in different ways by legislation from the European Union, national, and regional levels. We evaluated current European Union soil-related legislation and examples of regional legislation with regard to direct and indirect impacts on five soil functions: the production of food, fiber, and fuel; water purification and regulation; carbon sequestration and climate regulation; habitat for biodiversity provisioning; and the recycling of nutrients/agro-chemicals. Our results illustrate the diversity of existing policies and the complex interactions present between different spatial and temporal scales. The impact of most policies, positive or negative, on a soil function is usually not established, but depends on how the policy is implemented by local authorities and the farmers. This makes it difficult to estimate the overall state and trends of the different soil functions in agricultural ecosystems. To implement functional management and sustainable use of the different soil functions in agricultural ecosystems, more knowledge is needed on the policy interactions as well as on the impact of management options on the different soil functions

Harvesting European knowledge on soil functions and land management using multi-criteria decision analysis

Soil and its ecosystem functions play a societal role in securing sustainable food production while safeguarding natural resources. A functional land management framework has been proposed to optimize the agro-environmental outputs from the land and specifically the supply and demand of soil functions such as (a) primary productivity, (b) carbon sequestration, (c) water purification and regulation, (d) biodiversity and (e) nutrient cycling, for which soil knowledge is essential. From the outset, the LANDMARK multi-actor research project integrates harvested knowledge from local, national and European stakeholders to develop such guidelines, creating a sense of ownership, trust and reciprocity of the outcomes. About 470 stakeholders from five European countries participated in 32 structured workshops covering multiple land uses in six climatic zones. The harmonized results include stakeholders’ priorities and concerns, perceptions on soil quality and functions, implementation of tools, management techniques, indicators and monitoring, activities and policies, knowledge gaps and ideas. Multi-criteria decision analysis was used for data analysis. Two qualitative models were developed using Decision EXpert methodology to evaluate “knowledge” and “needs”. Soil quality perceptions differed across workshops, depending on the stakeholder level and regionally established terminologies. Stakeholders had good inherent knowledge about soil functioning, but several gaps were identified. In terms of critical requirements, stakeholders defined high technical, activity and policy needs in (a) financial incentives, (b) credible information on improving more sustainable management practices, (c) locally relevant advice, (d) farmers’ discussion groups, (e) training programmes, (f) funding for applied research and monitoring, and (g) strengthening soil science in education.</p

Options and implications for agricultural production - Report of Task 7: Final Report

CAPRESE has led to a better understanding of the potential of using specific land management practices in preserving and increasing the stock of organic carbon in the agricultural soils of the EU. The scientific literature relating to a range of carbon sequestration measures has been synthesised and evaluated for their potential applicability. Land management has a significant impact on SOC stocks with a number of measures clearly leading to carbon emissions. Conversely, a number of practices can be used to preserve and increase SOC levels. A novel modelling platform suggests that existing assessments of the SOC stock associated with agricultural topsoil in the EU may be over-estimating the current pool by around 24%. The project shows a topsoil SOC pool of 16 Gt., 7.4 and 5.4 Gt respectively between arable and pasture. The model shows that grassland conversion to cropland can have a strong negative impact on the overall C balance in the EU and consequently should be preserved (together with peatlands). Promising management practices for sequestering SOC include cover crops, complex rotation including residue management and reduced tillage. Such measures give C sequestration rates of up to 0.5 t C ha-1 yr-1. However, their effect was strongly dependent on the spatial and temporal extent considered and the scenarios clearly show strong regional differences in the performance of measures. An integrated approach in which measures are combined, could have a significant impact. An implementation scenario of a 12% uptake of mitigation measures gave a cumulated sequestration value of 101 Mt by 2020. Increased areas and variation in implementation patterns could give rise to higher values. Extensive and comparable data on the financial aspects of the implementation and cost-benefit of measures are limited or absent. Substantial effort is required to address these issues. Simplistic scenario analysis shows that on the basis of a conservative implementation of mitigation measures, a SOC stock with a perceived trading value of €500 million could be established by 2020. Such values imply that the implementation of the practices considered would be cost efficient compared to non-agricultural mitigation measures While calculations at farm-scale are difficult, agricultural systems and proportion of land that could be made available to SOC management schemes, there is a perceived positive cost-benefit to C preservation and mitigation measures. Return for grasslands where sequestration and preservation rates are higher would clearly be greater. A cost benefit calculated with the CAPRI (FT) model. Indicated no loss in agricultural income from a 5% conversion to grassland with in turn resulted in a value of the CO2 sequestered in the soil as €20.98 t-1 CO2. Comprehensive data on the impact of the implementation of the measures on production and the market are difficult to define as these macro-scale models do not consider the technical details associated with the specific measures that need to be applied to sequester SOC. However, the studies tend to indicate that that impacts on production could occur but these would be of low magnitude and regionally variable. From an economic perspective, the financial implications of the grassland scenario implemented in CAPRI (FT) model, it can be stated that the CAP premium implications are negligible. This is derived from the fact that as most of the direct payments premiums are now decoupled from production the change in the land use derived from the scenario setting is not affecting the total amount of the direct payments. From a policy perspective, it is important that existing good stewardship of land for maintaining existing SOC stocks should be recognised as a premium in comparison to simply sequestration of OC. Such an approach would be an incentive not to engage in conversion of organic-rich soils to other uses which could lead to a decrease in SOC stocks.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

Options for climate change mitigation in agricultural soils and impact on crop and grassland production: a multi-scale study

The decline of soil fertility is recognized by the European Union (EU) as the cause of yields reduction in many arable lands. The Soil Thematic Strategy proposed by the European Commission in 2006, identified the decline of organic matter as one of the main soil threats in EU. Organic carbon content is a recognised indicator of soil quality. Several studies have investigated this relationship through long-term field level experiments. This thesis presents a different approach: starting from data and information at EU level, a regional case study is investigated. The general objective of this thesis is to evaluate and quantify the impact of specific management practices in preserving or sequestering soil organic carbon in EU and regionally. The thesis is structured in five chapters: the first is a general introduction on the need for preserving soil organic carbon in the agricultural land and a review on the relevant legislation at international and European level. The second is a scoping chapter that presents a comparison on the available data on organic carbon content at EU level. The third chapter is a meta-analysis on soil organic carbon sequestration data available in scientific literature and reflection the management practices applied at EU scale. In the fourth chapter, the CENTURY model is applied at regional level in order to estimate the actual values of soil organic carbon stock and to model the implementation of the most promising management practices in two different climatic scenarios. The last chapter outlines the general conclusions and recommendations.La ridotta fertilitá dei suoli è riconosciuta dall’Unione Europea (UE) come preludio di una minore produttivitá delle aree agricole. La Strategia tematica del suolo, prodotta dalla Commissione Europea nel 2006, aveva identificato il declino della sostanza organica come una delle otto principali minacce dei suoli in UE, in quanto il contenuto di carbonio organico è un indicatore della qualitá dei suoli. Molti studi si sono concentrati su esperimenti a lungo termine a taglio locale. Questo lavoro ha un approccio diverso: a partire da dati ed informazioni a livello UE viene indagato un caso studio a taglio regionale. L’obiettivo generale di questo lavoro è valutare e quantificare quali sono le pratiche agricole piú promettenti nel preservare o sequestrare carbonio organico nei suoli dell’UE. La tesi è strutturata in cinque capitoli: il primo è un’introduzione generale sulla necessitá di preservare il carbonio organico presente nei suoli agricoli e una review della legislazione disponibile a livello internazionale ed Europeo. Il secondo capitolo indaga e confronta i dati disponibili sui livelli di carbonio nel suolo a livello UE. Il terzo è una meta-analisi su dati in letteratura sulla capacitá di sequestrare carbonio da parte delle pratiche agricole utilizzate dei suoli dell’UE. Nel quarto capitolo viene applicato il modello CENTURY a livello regionale per ricostruire i valori di stock di carbonio organico attuali e modellare l’applicazione di pratiche agricole promettenti in due diversi scenari climatici. Infine, l’ultimo capitolo riporta le conclusioni generali del lavoro e alcune linee guida

Policy Frameworks

Policy frameworks concerning soil carbon are rapidly evolving, both in Europe and at the global level. Within Europe, the Roadmap to Resource-Efficient Europe (RRE) (COM (2011) 571 final; EC, 2011a), as well as the implementation of the Soil Thematic Strategy (COM (2012) 46 final; EC, 2012c), highlight the relevance of soil organic carbon (SOC) and the need to reverse its decline in many parts of the European Union (EU). Integration of this concern into several related policies, such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or the Climate Change Policy in relation to the LULUCF (land use, land-use change and forestry) negotiation process, shows a potential for reverting the current negative trends. The recognition that SOC played a crucial role in the current Multilateral Environmental Agreements negotiated in Rio de Janeiro (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – UNFCCC; United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity – UNCBD; and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification – UNCCD) was clearly identified in the recent Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference. Soil, as an important global terrestrial C pool, as well as a large biodiversity reservoir, is gaining attention within the UNFCCC and the UNCBD, while remaining a focus for the UNCCD, traditionally the global convention dealing with soil-related issues. The proposed Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Net Land and Soil Degradation paves the way towards a renewed global effort of soil protection and restoration activities. The framework of the new Global Soil Partnership (GSP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will certainly contribute towards facilitating these recent developments.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

Estimating soil organic carbon in Europe based on data collected through an European network

Under the European Union Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection, the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment (DG Environment) and the European Environmental Agency (EEA) have identified decline in soil organic matter and soil losses by erosion as priorities for the collection of policyrelevant soil data at European scale. To support EU policies related to soil conditions the data collected on corresponding indicators requires establishing agreed datasets for the EU Member States on these themes. In 2010, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC), which is charged with the collection of soil data at European scale and hosts the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC), conducted a project to collect data on soil organic carbon and soil erosion in Europe using the European Environment Information and Observation Network for soil (EIONET-SOIL). The data submitted by participating countries are their best estimate and represent an official point of view. The technical approach taken allows a country to easily update the records when new data become available. This paper presents the first results obtained from analyzing the soil organic carbon data submitted to EIONET-SOIL. The collected data were compared with the modelled data of the European topsoil organic carbon content developed at the JRC. The modelled data follow the general pattern of the geographic distribution of collected data, but show higher values compared to the EIONET-SOIL data. The important role of soil organic carbon (SOC) as an indicator of soil quality underlines the need for using common methods of sampling, analysing and reporting soil organic carbon to provide a standard product, such as EIONET-SOIL.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

The EIONET soil organic carbon data collection results and the comparison with a modeled dataset

The decline in soil organic carbon (SOC) is recognized as one of the eight (8) soil threats expressed in the European Union Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection (EC, 2006). In 2010, the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) collected SOC and soil erosion data in collaboration with the 38 countries of the European Environment Information and Observation Network for soil (EIONET-SOIL). The data collection followed the INSPIRE specifications for a grid of 1km x 1km grid cells and the SOC data expressed the organic carbon density (t/ha) and the SOC content (%) in the 0-30cm depth range. Seven countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia) submitted almost complete datasets on SOC content while a further group of six countries submitted either less than 50% of their coverage or point data which needed additional spatial interpolation. The results were compared with the modeled European SOC data of OCTOP (Jones et al, 2005). The comparison concluded that the SOC (%) in the average modeled OCTOP dataset values are almost double than the collected EIONET-SOIL data in North-East and Central Europe (Panagos et al, 2013). In Netherlands and Poland, the difference is explained due to peats which have been drained in the last 20-30 years while in Denmark, Austria and Slovakia, the pedotransfer rule (PTR) of the model OCTOP had as output much higher SOC values than the ones provided by the countries. Instead, in Northern Italy both modeled and EIONET-SOIL datasets were quite close. Regarding the SOC Stocks, the sum the provided data for the 6 participating countries were: Bulgaria: 315 Tg, Denmark: 370 Tg, Netherlands: 299 Tg (77% coverage), Poland: 1,753 Tg (70% coverage), Italy: 994 Tg (57% coverage) and Slovakia: 122Tg (54% coverage). The SOC stocks were also compared with the amount of SOC in Europe based on OCTOP dataset (Schils et al., 2008). The results suggested that the current estimates of SOC Stock in Europe in the topsoil could be much less than the 73-79 Pg, as reported by Schils et al (2008). A more comprehensive pan-European estimation of SOC will take place after a new data collection round during 2013-2014 will be finished, with the expected contribution of more EIONET countries.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

A new baseline of organic carbon stock in European agricultural soils using a modelling approach

Proposed European policy in the agricultural sector will place higher emphasis on soil organic carbon (SOC), both as an indicator of soil quality and as a means to offset CO2 emissions through soil carbon (C) sequestration. Despite detailed national SOC datasets in several European Union (EU) Member States, a consistent C stock estimation at EU scale remains problematic. Data are often not directly comparable, different methods have been used to obtain values (e.g. sampling, laboratory analysis, etc.) and access may be restricted. Therefore, any evolution of EU policies on C accounting and sequestration may be constrained by a lack of an accurate SOC estimation and the availability of tools to carry out scenario analysis, especially for agricultural soils. Under this context, a comprehensive model was established at a pan-European scale (EU + Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Norway) using the agro-ecosystem SOC model CENTURY. Almost 164,000 combinations of soil-climate-land use were computed, including the main arable crops, orchards and pasture. The model was implemented with the main management practices (e.g. irrigation, mineral and organic fertilization, tillage, etc.) derived from official statistics. The model results were tested against inventories from the European Environment and Observation Network (EIONET) and approximately 20,000 soil samples from the 2009 LUCAS survey, a monitoring project aiming at producing the first coherent, comprehensive and harmonized top-soil dataset of the EU based on harmonized sampling and analytical methods. The CENTURY model estimation of the current 0-30 cm SOC stock of agricultural soils was 17.64 Gt. The model predicted an overall increase of this pool according to different climate-emission scenarios up to 2100, with C loss in the south and east of the area (involving 30% of the whole simulated agricultural land) compensated by a gain in central and northern regions. Generally, higher soil respiration was offset by higher C input as a consequence of increased CO2 atmospheric concentration and favourable crop growing conditions, especially in northern Europe. Considering the importance of SOC in future EU policies, this platform of simulation appears to be a very promising tool to orient future policymaking decisions.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen