Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
that inform and engage with societal debates
and values can be a key part of the network
of scientific and education centres. There-
fore, a global research programme to reduce
the uncertainty associated with SOC man-
agement across terrestrial ecosystems must
include a strong educational and outreach
component to address practical concerns to
different communities outside academia.
various spatial scales where management
strategies will vary at the farm/plot, catch-
ment and global level. Third, there is a need
to identify the critical ranges/thresholds of
SOC losses and recoveries for management
purposes and to include the ability to esti-
mate the economic value of investments in
soil carbon. All these fundamental research
priorities must inform public and economic
interests and provide information for policy
and actions towards reducing soil carbon
losses. Finally, any of these priorities will
not be possible without committed long-
term funding support and missions by na-
tional research agencies and international
organizations.
We propose that these research efforts
should be linked with specific goals and
priorities and actions tailored towards each
one of the five essential services ( Table 2.1 ).
Here, we discuss specific goals for each
essential service.
In order to meet the increasing food
demand, at both the local and global level,
there is a need to increase and sustain food
production through better management of
soils while improving environment quality.
For this, current SOC losses must be stopped
and practices to increase SOC must be
adopted, including dormant-season cover
crops, agroforestry systems, fallows, reduced
tillage and applications of mulch, compost
and safe biosolids, and in the case of organic
soils, paludicultures (Lal et al ., 2007; Smith
et al ., 2013). Examples include the proposed
climate-smart agriculture approach, which
Priorities and Actions
We argue that the overall priority is to stop
losses of SOC in terrestrial ecosystems. To
achieve this goal, we insist that there is a
need to create a global research programme
to address the challenges and uncertainties
associated with increasing SOC for multiple
benefits. The fundamental science questions
should focus on reducing the uncertainties
associated with large-scale assessments and
the monitoring of SOC change and benefits
at local and global scales. Therefore, urgent
actions and new approaches are needed to
answer key multi-purpose and multi-scale
relationships, thresholds and trade-offs be-
tween soil carbon and the essential services
( Fig. 2.1 ) . First, we need to understand the
recovery rates of SOC better as they are usu-
ally non-linear (i.e. have hysteresis effects),
making it difficult to forecast the effects of a
decision/management made today. Second,
research efforts should focus on how to op-
timize the benefits of soil carbon across
Table 2.1. Summary of wide-scale goals and urgent actions for the five essential services related to
soil organic carbon.
Environmental
service
Long-term goal
Priority/action
Food
Increase food production
Reduce soil organic carbon losses substantially
Water
Secure sufficient water quantity
and quality
Restore hydrological pathways
Improve water infiltration
Prevent water pollution
Energy
Increase biofuel production
Increase biomass production considering full carbon cycle
Biodiversity
Maintain or enhance below-
and aboveground biodiversity
Protect ecological hotspots
Restore habitats
Climate
Mitigate climate change
Stop losses of soil organic carbon
Increase soil organic carbon
 
 
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