This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Heinemeyer, A. and Bene, C. Di and Lloyd, A.R. and Tortorella, D. and Baxter, R. and Huntley, B. and Gelsomino, A. and Ineson, P. (2011) 'Soil respiration : implications of the plant-soil continuum and respiration chamber collar-insertion depth on measurement and modelling of soil CO2 e ux rates in three ecosystems.', European journal of soil science., 62 (1). pp. 82-94, which has been published in nal form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2389.2010.01331.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. fluxes. We hypothesized that total soil respiration is frequently under-estimated because soil 30 collar insertions sever surface roots, which coupled to the preferential practice of taking 31 daytime measurements, lead to the autotrophic (root-derived) component frequently being 32 missed. We measured root distribution and soil CO 2 efflux in three contrasting ecosystems: a 33Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) plantation, an upland heather-dominated peatland and a 34 lowland sheep-grazed grassland, where we combined shallow surface collars with collars at 35 different soil insertion depths for occasional and continuous hourly flux measurements. Collar 36 insertion by only a few centimetres reduced total soil CO 2 efflux in all three ecosystems by an 37 average of 15% but at times up to 30 to 50%, and was directly proportional to the quantity of 38 cut fine roots. Most reduction occurred in the shallow-rooted peatland system and least in the 39 deep-rooted grassland. In the forest and grassland, soil temperatures explained most of the 40 deep collar (i.e. largely heterotrophic) variation and did not relate to the root-derived (i.e.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest from retailers, industries and environmental associations in estimating the life cycle of greenhouse gases emitted in the atmosphere from everyday products and services, also known as carbon footprint (CF). Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the most common methodology used to evaluate the environmental impact of a product. This approach was largely used in many industrial sectors and was also recently applied to quantify the environmental impact of the agri-food chain. Within agri-food products, wine is one of the most analysed, both for its importance in economic production and in the world distribution market. The present study is a part of the Carbon Label Project carried out in the wine production chain in the Maremma rural district (Tuscany, Italy). The project assessed the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wine production for labelling purposes. Here, we evaluated the environmental performances of four high quality wines for carbon labelling. The international standards ISO 14040, ISO 14044, and the Product Category Rules (PCR) Wine from Fresh Grapes (except sparkling wine) and Grape Must for the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certification, specifically for Climate Declaration, were used in order to carry out our analyses. The functional unit (FU) used here was one 0.75 L bottle of wine. The system boundaries were set from the vineyard planting to the distribution and waste disposal. The global warming potential (GWP) of four investigated wines was found to lie between 0.6 and 1.3 kg CO2-eq./bottle, showing a value comparable with literature. With all the four wines analysed, the agricultural phase covered, on average, 22% of the total GWP/bottle, while the main impact was in the production of the glass bottle. The results showed that the vineyard-planting phase has a significant impact on the wine CF, thus it has to be considered in the life cycle, while in literature it is frequently omitted. On the contrary, the pre-production phase did not present a relevant impact. The use of nitrogen fertilisers, the grapes' yield and N2O emissions were the parameters that mostly affected the carbon footprint in the agricultural phase, as underlined by the sensitivity analysis.

No abstract

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) is the main residual product of olive processing and its disposal can\ud represent a relevant environmental issue in Mediterranean countries, where olive oil production is large\ud and concentrated in a short-lasting period. OMW is characterised by high pollutant load, salinity and\ud phytotoxic levels of polyphenols, but also by a high amount of organic compounds and plant mineral\ud nutrients. Therefore, OMW field spreading may represent a low cost contribution to crop fertilisation and\ud soil amendment. Here, we assessed the short- and long-term effects of long-lasting repeated OMW\ud applications on soil chemical and biochemical properties and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). In\ud addition the influence of two OMW management strategies, characterised by different seasonality of\ud spreading (autumn and spring times) was evaluated. Soil was amended by 0 and 80 m3 ha1 of OMW.\ud Principal coordinate analyses (PCO) together with PERMANOVAs showed that long-lasting repeated\ud OMW spreading: (i) affected the main soil chemical and biochemical parameters in the short-term,\ud whereas did not determine long-term residual effects irrespective of the application times; (ii)\ud decreased AM fungal root colonisation both after autumn and spring OMW applications; (iii) improved\ud arbuscule occurrence in the short- and long-term for both disposal times. Therefore, at least regarding\ud the monitored parameters, we can argue that OMW may be utilised as organic amendment in agriculture\ud under controlled conditions given the short-term negative effects on soil quality, which can be considered\ud negligible after a suitable waiting period

Concerns about global warming led to the calculation of the carbon footprint (CF) left by human activities. The agricultural sector is a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, though cropland soils can also act as sinks. So far, most LCA studies on agricultural products have not considered changes in soil organic matter (SOM). This paper aimed to: (1) integrate the H,nin-Dupuis SOM model into the CF study and (2) outline the impacts of different vineyard soil management scenarios on the overall CF.\ud \ud A representative wine chain in the Maremma Rural District, Tuscany (Italy), made up of a cooperative winery and nine of its associated farms, was selected to investigate the production of a non-aged, high-quality red wine. The system boundary was established from vineyard planting to waste management after use. The functional unit (FU) chosen for this study was a 0.75-L bottle of wine, and all data refer to the year 2009. The SOM balance, based on H,nin-Dupuis' equation, was integrated and run using GaBi4 software. A sensitivity analysis was performed, and four scenarios were developed to assess the impact of vineyard soil management types with decreasing levels of organic matter inputs.\ud \ud SOM accounting reduced the overall CF of one wine bottle from 0.663 to 0.531 kg CO2-eq/FU. The vineyard planting sub-phase produced a loss of SOM while, in the pre-production and production sub-phases, the loss/accumulation of SOM was related to the soil management practices. On average, soil management in the production sub-phase led to a net accumulation of SOM, and the overall vineyard phase was a sink of CO2. Residue incorporation and grassing were identified as the main factors affecting changes in SOM in vineyard soils.\ud \ud Our results showed that incorporating SOM accounting into the wine chain's CF analysis changed the vineyard phase from a GHG source to a modest net GHG sink. These results highlighted the need to include soil C dynamics in the CF of the agricultural product. Here, the SOM balance method proposed was sensitive to changes in management practices and was site specific. Moreover, we were also able to define a minimum data set for SOM accounting.\ud \ud The EU recognises soil carbon sequestration as one of the major European strategies for mitigation. However, specific measures have yet to be included in the CAP 2020. It would be desirable to include soil in the new ISO 14067-Carbon Footprint of Products