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

摘要

The decrease of fertility in European soils is fully recognized both from the scientific arena and from institutional bodies. Soil organic matter (SOM) decline is on the agenda of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection of the European Commission (EC) and the implementation of pilot long-term experiments (LTE) to detect soil organic carbon (SOC) changes is considerably increasing. Several bodies have started national inventories of forested areas, the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) mechanism is non-stop aiming to reduce emissions from forests, and the role of peatlands in climate change has been widely debated. Also, the integration of agricultural soils, climate change influence and food security in Europe isa 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. 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. This paper gives an overview of the activities carrie d out in the JRC—SOIL Action with a specific focus on agricultural soils and their SOC content. A short paragraph covers the potential application of nuclear and isotopic techniques to support the knowledge of SOM and C sequestration dynamics.