| Title: |
Review of existing information on the interrelations between soil and climate change
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| Resource Type: |
document --> technical publication --> report
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| Country: |
European Union
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| Year: |
2009 |
| Availability: |
Contract number 070307/2007/486157/SER/B1
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| Author 1/Producer: |
European Commission
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| Other Authors/Producers: |
Alterra, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands, CEH, United Kingdom, SYKE, Finland, UNAB, United Kingdom
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| Author / Producer Type: |
Agency, regulator or other governmental or inter-governmental body
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| Publisher: |
European Commission
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| Publisher City: |
Rue de la Loi, Brussels, Belgium
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| Format (e.g. PDF): |
PDF
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| Size: (e.g. 20mb) |
3
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EUGRIS Keyword(s): |
Soil-->Processes
Soil-->Soil Overview
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| Short description: |
Key messages
1. Carbon stock in EU soils – The soil carbon stocks in the EU27 are around 75 billion
tonnes of carbon (C); of this stock around 50% is located in Sweden, Finland and the
United Kingdom (because of the vast area of peatlands in these countries) and
approximately 20% is in peatlands, mainly in countries in the northern part of Europe.
The rest is in mineral soils, again the higher amount being in northern Europe.
2. Soils sink or source for CO2 in the EU – Both uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) through
photosynthesis and plant growth and loss of CO2 through decomposition of organic
matter from terrestrial ecosystems are significant fluxes in Europe. Yet, the net
terrestrial carbon fluxes are typically 5-10 times smaller relative to the emissions
from use of fossil fuel of 4000 Mt CO2 per year.
3. Peat and organic soils - The largest emissions of CO2 from soils are resulting from
land use change and especially drainage of organic soils and amount to 20-40 tonnes
of CO2 per hectare per year. The most effective option to manage soil carbon in order
to mitigate climate change is to preserve existing stocks in soils, and especially the
large stocks in peat and other soils with a high content of organic matter.
4. Land use and soil carbon – Land use and land use change significantly affects soil
carbon stocks. On average, soils in Europe are most likely to be accumulating carbon
on a net basis with a sink for carbon in soils under grassland and forest (from 0 - 100
billion tonnes of carbon per year) and a smaller source for carbon from soils under
arable land (from 10 - 40 billion tonnes of carbon per year). Soil carbon losses occur
when grasslands, managed forest lands or native ecosystems are converted to
croplands and vice versa carbon stocks increase, albeit it slower, following
conversion of cropland.
5. Soil management and soil carbon – Soil management has a large impact on soil
carbon. Measures directed towards effective management of soil carbon are available
and identified, and many of these are feasible and relatively inexpensive to
implement. Management for lower nitrogen (N) emissions and lower C emissions is a
useful approach to prevent trade off and swapping of emissions between the
greenhouse gases CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).
6. Carbon sequestration – Even though effective in reducing or slowing the build up of
CO2 in the atmosphere, soil carbon sequestration is surely no ‘golden bullet’ alone to
fight climate change due to the limited magnitude of its effect and its potential
reversibility; it could, nevertheless, play an important role in climate mitigation
alongside other measures, especially because of its immediate availability and relative
low cost for 'buying' us time.
7. Effects of climate change on soil carbon pools – Climate change is expected to have
an impact on soil carbon in the longer term, but far less an impact than does land use
change, land use and land management. We have not found strong and clear evidence
for either overall and combined positive of negative impact of climate change
(atmospheric CO2, temperature, precipitation) on soil carbon stocks. Due to the
relatively large gross exchange of CO2 between atmosphere and soils and the
significant stocks of carbon in soils, relatively small changes in these large and
opposing fluxes of CO2, i.e. as result of land use (change), land management and
climate change, may have significant impact on our climate and on soil quality.
14
8. Monitoring systems for changes in soil carbon – Currently, monitoring and
knowledge on land use and land use change in EU27 is inadequate for accurate
calculation of changes in soil carbon contents. Systematic and harmonized monitoring
across EU27 and across relevant land uses would allow for adequate representation of
changes in soil carbon in reporting emissions from soils and sequestration in soils to
the UNFCCC.
9. EU policies and soil carbon – Environmental requirements under the Cross
Compliance requirement of CAP is an instrument that may be used to maintain SOC.
Neither measures under UNFCCC nor those mentioned in the proposed Soil
Framework Directive are expected to adversely impact soil C. EU policy on
renewable energy is not necessarily a guarantee for appropriate (soil) carbon
management.
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Link to Organisation(s):
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EC European Commission
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Submitted By:
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Professor Paul Bardos WhoDoesWhat?
Last update: 09/04/2009
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