Climasoma: Climate change adaptation through soil and crop management: synthesis and ways forward : Deliverable WP5.D1 : CLIMASOMA final report

Abstract

Soil management and cropping systems enhancing soil structure are key to support the sustainable adaptation of EU agriculture to climate change. The occurrence of extreme weather events, such as drought in summer and floods in winter, will increase almost everywhere in the EU. Guidance on management practices and co-learning opportunities to help farmers adapt to these situations are necessary. Many practices exist and have already been subject to scientific research for several decades. Nevertheless, it is not always clear which practices have really proven effective in which contexts, what trade-offs have to be taken into account and which synergies might occur.ClimaSoMa investigated the implications of agricultural management practices for soil hydrological functioning under European agro-environmental conditions. We synthesized the results of 36 selected meta-analyses (representing data from 2803 unique studies) studying the impact of soil and crop management practices on soil hydrological functioning. As such, we identified the effectiveness of the selected practices, and also remaining knowledge gaps. Important tradeoffs and synergies related to crop production, water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions were also assessed based on the results of additional published meta-analyses. The results of this second order meta-analysis are described in Chapter 2, Soil and crop management for climate-smart