Soil Management and Climate Change

Effects on Organic Carbon, Nitrogen Dynamics, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Maria Angeles Munoz, Raúl Zornoza

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780128121283
• eBook ISBN:
  9780128121290
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Botany
• Index: Biological Sciences

Soil Management and Climate Change: Effects on Organic Carbon, Nitrogen Dynamics, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions provides a state of the art overview of recent findings and future research challenges regarding physical, chemical and biological processes controlling soil carbon, nitrogen dynamic and greenhouse gas emissions from soils. This book is for students and academics in soil science and environmental science, land managers, public administrators and legislators, and will increase understanding of organic matter preservation in soil and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Given the central role soil plays on the global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles and its impact on greenhouse gas emissions, there is an urgent need to increase our common understanding about sources, mechanisms and processes that regulate organic matter mineralization and stabilization, and to identify those management practices and processes which mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, helping increase organic matter stabilization with suitable supplies of available N. - Provides the latest findings about soil organic matter stabilization and greenhouse gas emissions - Covers the effect of practices and management on soil organic matter stabilization - Includes information for readers to select the most suitable management practices to increase soil organic matter stabilization

Chapter 1

Decreased Organic Carbon Associated With Land Management in Mediterranean Environments

Javier Jerez Escolano*; J. Navarro Pedreño*; I. Gomez Lucas*; María B. Almendro Candel*; Antonis A. Zorpas^{† *} Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Alicante, Spain
^† Cyprus Open University, Nicosia, Cyprus

Abstract

Soil organic carbon (SOC) depends on land management and land use. Land planning policy determines land use and management, therefore changes in both can produce a decrease of SOC. This is especially important in Mediterranean environments due to the scarcity of organic matter in soil. Climate change is associated with the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and with the low organic matter in soil. Therefore strategies that reduce SOC also promote climate change. Moreover, soil resources in many parts of Europe are being overexploited, degraded, and irreversibly lost due to inappropriate land management practices, industrial activities, and land use changes that lead to soil sealing, erosion, contamination, and loss of organic carbon. This chapter focuses on changes that reduce SOC and increase greenhouse gas emissions or inhibit the possibility of carbon sequestration by soil.

Keywords

Climate change; Land planning; Land use; Organic matter; Soil sealing

Introduction

Soil organic matter is a key element for soil quality and productivity (Karlen et al., 1994). Land management and land use are closely related to climate change and both determine the ability of an ecosystem to reduce the emissions and negative effects of climate change for the earth. Moreover, carbon soil sequestration is considered to be one of the main sustainable, valuable, and long-term strategies to mitigate climate change through changes in land use (Muñoz-Rojas et al., 2012). An increase in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks indicates the removal of atmospheric CO₂ through the fixation of this CO₂ during the procedure of photosynthesis and the integration of this atmospheric C into the soil as crop residues; this is known as the sequestration process (Morel Soler, 2012).

Instead of maintaining and enhancing the capacity of carbon capture and storage, the world’s ecosystems are being depleted at an alarming rate. About 20% of the emissions of greenhouse gases come from the clearing and burning of forests; the large store of peatlands and tundra is threatened by drainage and thawing, including the degradation of agricultural soil (Trumper et al., 2009). Planning policies, land use, and management are key factors in global warming, and they are responsible for the land cover, as indicated in Fig. 1. Soil is related to all of these factors: planning policies, land use, land management, and land cover.

Fig. 1 Relation among planning, land use and management, and land cover.

SOC plays an important role in the global C cycle. It is generally assumed that soils are the largest C sinks in terrestrial ecosystems (Lal, 2004; IPCC, 2007). Half of all soil carbon in managed ecosystems has been lost to the atmosphere during the past two centuries due to cultivation (McCarl et al., 2007). The global soil carbon (C) pool is comprised of 2500 gigatonnes (Gt), including about 1550 Gt of SOC and 950 Gt of soil inorganic carbon (SIC). The soil C pool is 3.3 times the size of the atmospheric pool (760 Gt) and 4.5 times the size of the biotic pool (560 Gt), which shows the potential for C sequestration of the soil (Lal, 2004). Therefore the presence of organic carbon in soil is a critical factor when considering climate change as well as land use and management. Furthermore, soil has the ability and the capacity to store C for long periods; thus variations in the size of the soil C pools could significantly adjust and modify the concentration of CO₂ that exists in the atmosphere (Muñoz-Rojas et al., 2012; Lal, 2004). Moreover, SOC has the ability to minimize degradation risk and soil erosion, as well as increase the capacity to hold water and nutrients and generally improve soil structure (Lal, 2004).

Under this perspective, soil is a natural resource that needs deep reflection on its role in climate change and its use in proper planning and land management. For instance, safeguarding and restoring carbon in three systems (forests, peatlands, and agriculture) might reduce well over 50 gigatonnes of carbon emissions over the coming decades that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. Grasslands and coastal systems such as mangroves are also capable of playing their parts (Trumper et al., 2009).

Soil and Land Planning in the European Union

Soil is a key environmental factor recognized in Europe since 1972 by the resolution 72(19) of the Council of Europe (1972, 1983) European Soil Charter and is considered to be at the same level of air and water. Later in 1983, the European Regional/spatial Planning Charter associating land planning with environment indicated the need of “a critical review of the principles governing the organization of space to avoid their being wholly determined by short-term economic objectives without taking into consideration social, cultural and environmental aspects.” Environmental aspects have to drive the administrative and political decisions for land planning. Moreover, the 2004/35/EC Directive for the protection of soil includes some main principles, which are:

a. “Soil is essentially a nonrenewable resource and a very dynamic system which performs many functions and delivers services vital to human activities and ecosystems survival.”

b. “Soil is a natural resource of common interest which is under increasing environmental pressure and is to be protected from degradation in its own right.”

c. “Soil should be used in a sustainable manner which preserves its capacity to deliver ecological, economic and social services, while maintaining its functions so that future generations can meet their needs.”

From the above principles, “The Soil Thematic Strategy in the European Union” promotes the sustainable use of soil. The report focuses on “The State of Soil in Europe” of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (2012), which provides a comprehensive overview of the present understanding of soil resources and degradation processes. The previous reasons lead to a focus on the objectives of regional/spatial planning and new criteria for the orientation of land use/land management and their changes to favor SOC maintenance and carbon sequestration by soil.

Land use changes and management often modify and change soil and do not favor the objective to combat climate change. Therefore given that soil is a limited resource and in considering its importance in global warming, it is necessary to define strategies for sustainable management and planning. In the European Union, more than 1000 km² of land are held every year for housing, industry, roads, or recreational purposes (European Commission, 2011). This situation motivates EU policies to consider their direct and indirect impacts on land use; the goal is to reach zero land use in 2050. However, zero land use is not the only possible strategy; it is important for soil management, to recover organic carbon-reducing climate change effects.

Referring to land planning and land management, two interlinked concepts should be taken into account:

a. Land cover, which refers to the biophysical coverage of land (e.g., crops, grass, broad-leaved forests, or built-up areas). It is mainly the result of land management after regional planning.

b. Land use, which indicates the socioeconomic use of land (for example, agriculture, forestry, recreation, or residential use). It is a result of the decisions about policy planning and it is closely related to land management.

Land cover and land use data form the basis for spatial and territorial analyses, which are increasingly important for the planning and management of agricultural, forest, wetland, water, urban areas, n...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Decreased Organic Carbon Associated With Land Management in Mediterranean Environments
• Chapter 2: Effect of Land Use on Organic Carbon Distribution in a North African Region: Tunisia Case Study
• Chapter 3: Organic Carbon Stocks in all Pools Following Land Cover Change in the Rainforest of Madagascar
• Chapter 4: Soil Carbon Dynamics Under Different Land Uses in Dryland Mediterranean Conditions
• Chapter 5: Short-Term Effects of Tillage Practices and Crop Residue Exportation on Soil Organic Matter and Earthworm Communities in Silt Loam Arable Soil
• Chapter 6: Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics in a Tropical Peatland
• Chapter 7: Carbon and Nitrogen Sequestration Potential of Mediterranean Green Roofs Prototypes
• Chapter 8: Soil Organic Matter Accumulation in Postmining Sites: Potential Drivers and Mechanisms
• Chapter 9: Role of Carbonates in the Physical Stabilization of Soil Organic Matter in Agricultural Mediterranean Soils
• Chapter 10: Effects of Carbon Inputs on Chemical and Microbial Properties of Soil in Irrigated and Rainfed Olive Groves
• Chapter 11: Dynamics of Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Soils: Role of Organic and Inorganic Sources
• Chapter 12: Nitrogen Dynamic and Leaching in Calcareous Soils Amended With Pig Slurry
• Chapter 13: Nitrogen Dynamic in Agricultural Soils Amended With Sewage Sludge
• Chapter 14: Impacts of Raw and Purified Pig Slurry on Carbon and Nitrogen Contents in Mediterranean Agricultural Soil
• Chapter 15: Do Crop Rotations Improve the Adaptation of Agricultural Systems to Climate Change? A Modeling Approach to Predict the Effect of Durum Wheat-Based Rotations on Soil Organic Carbon and Nitrogen
• Chapter 16: Managing Forest Soils for Carbon Sequestration: Insights From Modeling Forests Around the Globe
• Chapter 17: Soil Organic Matter and Nutrient Dynamics Following Different Management of Crop Residues at Two Sites in Austria
• Chapter 18: MURASOC, A Metaanalysis to Test the Effects of Independent Variables on Soil Organic Carbon: Application to Mediterranean Areas
• Chapter 19: Soil CO2 Emissions in a Long-Term Tillage Treatment Experiment
• Chapter 20: Land Use and Land Cover Transition in Brazil and Their Effects on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Chapter 21: Crop Residue Management and Greenhouse Gases Emissions in Tropical Rice Lands
• Chapter 22: Understanding the Complex Interaction Between Soil N Availability and Soil C Dynamics Under Changing Climate Conditions
• Chapter 23: Climate-Smart Soil Management in Semiarid Regions
• Soil Management and Climate Change: Effects on Organic Carbon, Nitrogen Dynamics, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Concluding Remarks
• Index