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Organic Carbon in Soils Meeting Climate Change and Food Security Challenges

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Organic Carbon in Soils Meeting Climate Change and Food Security Challenges Organic carbon in soils Meeting climate change and food security challenges Local authorities and farming sector knowledge and action Editorial Soil carbon: what are the issues for climate and GIS Sol agriculture? in brief Jérôme Mousset Created in 2001, GIS Sol Head of the agricultural (sol being the French and forestry service, ADEME T. P. word for soil) is a French scientific network focused Soil is the living base for agricultural and forestry on soils. The network production and a limited resource which cannot be includes the French National Institute for renewed at the human scale. Increasingly, land is in Agricultural Research demand and there is tension between different land (INRA), the French uses. Changes in production practices, ploughing Environment and Energy up of grassland, loss of arable and wooded land for Management Agency urbanisation, increased use of biomass...There are (ADEME), the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and so many changes which, if not taken into account, Forests, the Ministry could affect soil quality and lower soil carbon stocks. of Ecology, Sustainable Nevertheless, soil is a considerable asset in strategies Development and Energy, for mitigating climate change. But this issue lacks the Institute of Research visibility and, in order to raise awareness among for Development (IRD) and the National Institute territorial administrators, decision makers, farmers for Geographical and and foresters, ADEME has enlisted the help of experts, Forestry Information scientists, advisers and representatives of public (IGN). authorities to produce this brochure. GIS Sol is seeking to This brochure aims to clarify the role of soil in mitigating create and manage an information system on the greenhouse effect and, furthermore, to highlight French soils, including the environmental benefits of better management data about their spatial of organic matter. A healthy, living, well-balanced soil distribution, their containing organic matter can increase production characteristics and potential, contribute to optimising the use of agricultural changes in their quality. It works in the knowledge inputs, filter water from these pollutants and increase that soil is a limited and biodiversity. This idea of environmental and economic non-renewable resource services chimes exactly with the principles of at the human scale. agroecology. 2l Soil and carbon Contents Issues Points of view 04. Soil, a carbon pool essential for the 20. Reconstructing carbon stocks climate Many benefits to highlight 06. Continuously providing soil with Evaluation organic matter 22. Measuring changes 08. Organic matter: providing at the field scale environmental services 24. Measurement tools Points of view at the territorial scale 10. Carbon storage in soils: Perspectives rising awareness 26. Improving and sharing references Impacts and levers for action 27. An international dynamic 12. Changes in land use: the need to combine food security and climate to preserve carbon-rich soils change mitigation 14. Forest soils: rationalising the Research increase in harvested wood 28. ADEME supports research 16. Agricultural soils: acting on organic for better agricultural and matter inputs and losses environmental management of soil organic matter 18. Agricultural practices according to their cost 30. Soil organic carbon matters and efficacy in the European Union This document has been edited Communication service: Brochure Ref.8575 to download on by ADEME Sylvie Cogneau www.ADEME.fr/mediatheque Technical coordination: Writting and design: Terre-Écos ADEME For ADEME Cover picture: Vivescia 20, avenue du Grésillé - Agricultural and Illustrations : Gana Castagnon BP 90406 49004 Angers forestry service: Printed by: Cedex 01 Thomas Eglin, agronomy and Pure impression certificated PEFC, Registration of copyright: environmental engineer Iso 14001, Imprim’vert, Print ©ADEME Editions, November 2015 environnement ISBN : 979-10-297-0209-9 Any complete or partial representation or reproduction made without the consent of the author or his legal successors is illicit, according to the Code of intellectual property (Art L 122-4) and constitutes an imitation repressed by the penal code. The only authorisations are (Art L 122-5) copies or reproductions strictly reserved for private use of the copyist, and not intended for a collective use, as well as analyses and short quotations justified by the critical, educational or informational character of the work into which it is incorporated, only if, however, the articles L 122-10 and L 122-12, relative to the reproduction by reprography, of the same code, are respected. Soil and carbon l 3 Issues Soils, a carbon pool essential for the climate In the form of organic matter, soils store two to three times more carbon than the atmosphere. Therefore their use creates fluxes in CO2 and has consequences on climate change. Today, the challenge is to limit carbon losses linked to changes in land use and to increase carbon stocks by promoting suitable agricultural and forestry practices. arbon dioxide (CO2) is equivalent of two to four years’ the main greenhouse carbon emissions. In France, 3 4 per 1,000 gas (GHG) linked to to 4 billion tonnes of carbon are A ‘4 per 1,000’ annual human activities. At stored in the first 30cm of soil, increase of organic matter in soil would be enough to Cthe global scale, nearly 35 billion which is three times more carbon compensate for the global tonnes of CO were emitted in than is present in forestry woods. 2 emissions of greenhouse 2013 through the consumption The levels of carbon stocks are gases (see page 27) of fossil fuels such as oil, gas highly variable, depending on land and coal, and through cement use, soil type and climate. The storage, integrating changes in production. Terrestrial ecosys- trend shows a general reduction in soil carbon stocks, has become tems mitigate these emissions organic matter in agricultural soils, compulsory for European Union by capturing more than a third though there are large regional Member States. From 2013, this through photosynthesis. and territorial differences. has included variations linked to The evolution of carbon stocks forestry practices and, from 2021, PRESERVING STOCKS in French soils remains very will include those linked to the OF ORGANIC MATTER uncertain because of the many management of cropland and Organic matter in the soil is the mechanisms involved and the pastures. This decision is evidence largest reservoir of organic carbon, difficulty of measuring them: of the first step towards the future even greater than plant biomass. the extension of forest areas, integration of land use issues in Worldwide, the first metre of soil development of urban areas, European Union commitments to contains between 1,500 and conversion of grassland into reducing GHG emissions. Within 2,400 billion tonnes of organic cultivated areas and changes carbon markets, voluntary carbon carbon. Losses of these soils and in agricultural practices. And to offsetting schemes represent a the organic matter they contain this we can add climate change, way of valuing carbon storage throws into question their role a phenomenon which encourages in soils. Currently, at the inter- as a carbon sink and increases plant production and boosts the national scale, the number of emissions. A reduction of only 5% degradation of organic matter. such initiatives and reductions in in carbon stocks represents the GHG emissions are very limited TAKING CARBON because of the diverse nature of FLUXES INTO ACCOUNT emissions and uncertainties over 3 to 4 billion tonnes With the adoption of decision storage levels. More reliable and of carbon are stored in the 529/2013/EU in 2013, keeping cheaper evaluation methods are first 30cm of French soils accounts of GHG emissions and needed. 4l Soil et carbon Dessin A Carbon stocks and fluxes at the global scale + Atmosphere 4 829 + 7.8 + - - 1.1 2.6 2.3 Vegetation XX Average fluxes Fossil 350 to 550 for 2000 - 2009, carbon Ocean Soils in billion tonnes 1001 to 1940 40 000 per year 1500 to 2400 G. Castagnon XX Stocks for 2011, estimated in billion tonnes Fossil carbon • Emissions linked to land use change Carbon dissolution in the emissions and deforestation sea and carbon fixation by • Carbon assimilation by plants and soils marine organisms source IPCC 2013 The atmosphere contains 829 billion tonnes of carbon, among which 240 result from human activities, starting from the year 1750. The most important annual flux is linked to industrial and urban areas with 7.8 billion tonnes, to which is added the flux linked to land use change and deforestation, up to 1.1 billion tonnes. These emissions are partially compensated by carbon assimilation through photosynthesis, as well as carbon dissolution in the oceans (2.6 and 2.3 billion tonnes respectively). Some 4 billion tonnes of carbon are added in the atmosphere every year. Dessin C Dessin C Variations in organic carbon stocks depending on land use in France Urban areas Vineyards Orchards and Grasslands Forest Urban areas Vineyards Orchardsfarmlands and Grasslands Forest farmlands Variable 35 tC/ha 50 tC/ha Variable 35˜ tC/ha 50˜ tC/ha 80 tC/ha 80 tC/ha ˜ ˜ ˜ 80˜ tC/ha ˜ ˜80 tC/ha G. Castagnon source GIS sol XX Estimate of carbon stored within the 30 first centimetres of soil XX Estimate of carbon stored within the 30 first centimetres of soil Organic matter stocks in forests, grasslands and low vegetation growing in highlands are large, whereas stocks are quite low in vineyards, farmlands and Mediterranean zones. Quantifying stocks is difficult in urban areas; nevertheless, a significant amount of carbon could be stored under green spaces. Carbon stored in forest litter is not taken into account. Soil and carbon l 5 Issues Continuously providing soil with organic matter Soil organic matter can be defined as ‘everything that is alive or was alive in the ground’. Organic matter undergoes a degradation which leads to mineralisation. Carbon contained in organic matter is largely released into the atmosphere in the form of a gas.
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