Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Soil Carbon Stocks and Fluxes
Tommaso Chiti, Costantino Sirca, Mirco Rodeghiero,
Donatella Spano and Riccardo Valentini
Abstract The aim of this chapter was to quantify the soil organic carbon (SOC)
stock in the top 30 cm of mineral soil for the whole Italian territory, according to the
different land use types of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
cropland category (arable land, agroforestry, vineyards, olive groves, orchards and
rice fields), as a basis for future land use scenarios and to address mitigation pol-
icy at country level. Besides, two independent studies addressing the current status
and the future trends of SOC for the whole cropland category at regional level were
reported. The subdivision of the cropland category into classes is functional to assess
the impacts on the SOC stock due to land use changes from and to agricultural uses,
providing the starting or ending point scenario. The differences emphasized for the
soils of a subcategory under the different types of climate can be possibly used for
future-oriented agricultural practices. The comparison of the total mean values of
the different cropland subcategories shows significant differences in the SOC stock.
Considering the year 2000 and applying to each subcategory area the specific average
SOC stock value found in this study, the total amount of C stored in the upper 30 cm
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