Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils

Soil organic carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils in Europe - CarboSeq

Carbon sequestration in soils is a negative emission technology that can contribute to mitigate climate change. However, for European soils, a comprehensive assessment is missing on how much soil organic carbon (SOC) can be sequestered with different management options using also national data on agricultural management.

Thus, the aim of CarboSeq is to estimate the feasible SOC-sequestration potential taking into account technical and socio-economic constraints. The project will align with the current FAO activity for a global SOC-sequestration potential map (GSOCseq). The key for SOC-sequestration is an enhanced input of biomass (e.g. crop residues) to the soil, for which a new database will be built to facilitate model runs with RothC and other soil SOC models for different management scenarios.

The potential area of implementation will be developed together with all partners of CarboSeq and the national expert hubs. The SOC-sequestration potential maps for different management options will guide policy makers regional specific to the most efficient agricultural management options to sequester SOC for climate mitigation. [https://ejpsoil.eu/soil-research/carboseq]

Keywords: carbon sequestration, climate-smart agriculture, climate change, soil organic carbon, soil organic matter, Europe

Duration of the project: 48 months (02-/2021 - 11/2024)

Project coordinator: Axel Don - Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Germany

Co-coordinator: Felix Seidel - Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Germany