Climate change cannot be entirely responsible for soil carbon loss observed in England and Wales, 1978–2003

Smith, Peter L.; Chapman, Stephen J.; Scott, William; Black, H. I. J.; Wattenbach, Martin; Milne, R.; Campbell, Colin D.; Lilly, Allan; Ostle, Nicholas J.; Levy, Peter E.; Lumsdon, David G.; Millard, P.; Towers, Willie; Zaehle, Sönke; Smith, Jo

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01458.x

Cited by 134 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The measured actual loss of carbon from topsoils in England and Wales during this period (NSRI 2010) has shown a rate of SOC loss, in the region of 0.6% yr -1 on average and up to 2% yr -1 in organic soils (Bellamy et al 2005). Smith et al (2007) and Kirk & Bellamy (2010) suggest that only at most 10% of the carbon losses observed in Bellamy et al (2005) could be attributed to climate change and that the majority of the loss is a consequence of land-use change. This would lower the rate of SOC loss due to climate change to a level comparable with that reported by Ise et al (2008).…”

Section: The Future Of Blanket Peatlands In Great Britainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioclimatic envelope model of climate change impacts on blanket peatland distribution in Great Britain

Gallego‐Sala¹,

Clark²,

House³

et al. 2010

Clim. Res.

112

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Blanket peatlands are rain-fed mires that cover the landscape almost regardless of topography. The geographical extent of this type of peatland is highly sensitive to climate. We applied a global process-based bioclimatic envelope model, PeatStash, to predict the distribution of British blanket peatlands. The model captures the present areal extent (Kappa = 0.77) and is highly sensitive to both temperature and precipitation changes. When the model is run using the UKCIP02 climate projections for the time periods 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071-2100, the geographical distribution of blanket peatlands gradually retreats towards the north and the west. In the UKCIP02 high emissions scenario for 2071-2100, the blanket peatland bioclimatic space is ~84% smaller than contemporary conditions ; only parts of the west of Scotland remain inside this space. Increasing summer temperature is the main driver of the projected changes in areal extent. Simulations using 7 climate model outputs resulted in generally similar patterns of declining aereal extent of the bioclimatic space, although differing in degree. The results presented in this study should be viewed as a first step towards understanding the trends likely to affect the blanket peatland distribution in Great Britain. The eventual fate of existing blanket peatlands left outside their bioclimatic space remains uncertain.

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Section: The Future Of Blanket Peatlands In Great Britainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioclimatic envelope model of climate change impacts on blanket peatland distribution in Great Britain

Gallego‐Sala¹,

Clark²,

House³

et al. 2010

Clim. Res.

112

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“…This may be due to factors other than effects of current management, for example legacy of previous land-use where underlying long-term trends in SOC may modify or even superimpose management-induced trends (Leifeld et al 2009;Smith et al 2007). Also, a given management practice or type of management may include various individual activities which jointly affect SOC levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration: What Do We Really Know About the Benefits?

Leifeld

Fuhrer

2010

AMBIO

141

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Organic farming is believed to improve soil fertility by enhancing soil organic matter (SOM) contents. An important co-benefit would be the sequestration of carbon from atmospheric CO 2 . Such a positive effect has been suggested based on data from field experiments though many studies were not designed to address the issue of carbon sequestration. The aim of our study was to examine published data in order to identify possible flaws such as missing a proper baseline, carbon mass measurements, or lack of a clear distinction between conventional and organic farming practices, thereby attributing effects of specific practices to organic farming, which are not uniquely organic. A total of 68 data sets were analyzed from 32 peer-reviewed publications aiming to compare conventional with organic farming. The analysis revealed that after conversion, soil C content (SOC) in organic systems increased annually by 2.2% on average, whereas in conventional systems SOC did not change significantly. The majority of publications reported SOC concentrations rather than amounts thus neglecting possible changes in soil bulk density. 34 out of 68 data sets missed a true control with well-defined starting conditions. In 37 out of 50 cases, the amount of organic fertilizer in the organic system exceeded that applied in the compared conventional system, and in half of the cases crop rotations differed between systems. In the few studies where crop rotation and organic fertilization were comparable in both systems no consistent difference in SOC was found. From this data analysis, we conclude that the claim for beneficial effects of organic farming on SOC is premature and that reported advantages of organic farming for SOC are largely determined by higher and often disproportionate application of organic fertilizer compared to conventional farming.

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“…To the contrary, model-based inventories that build on detailed land use and management observations for change attribution typically lack a national network of SOC stock observations (8,9). Hence, satisfactory explanations of historic SOC changes at the regional scale have not yet been given (3).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural management explains historic changes in regional soil carbon stocks

Wesemael

Paustian

Meersmans

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

161

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Agriculture is considered to be among the economic sectors having the greatest greenhouse gas mitigation potential, largely via soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. However, it remains a challenge to accurately quantify SOC stock changes at regional to national scales. SOC stock changes resulting from SOC inventory systems are only available for a few countries and the trends vary widely between studies. Process-based models can provide insight in the drivers of SOC changes, but accurate input data are currently not available at these spatial scales. Here we use measurements from a soil inventory dating from the 1960s and resampled in 2006 covering the major soil types and agricultural regions in Belgium together with region-specific land use and management data and a process-based model. The largest decreases in SOC stocks occurred in poorly drained grassland soils (clays and floodplain soils), consistent with drainage improvements since 1960. Large increases in SOC in well drained grassland soils appear to be a legacy effect of widespread conversion of cropland to grassland before 1960. SOC in cropland increased only in sandy lowland soils, driven by increasing manure additions. Modeled land use and management impacts accounted for more than 70% of the variation in observed SOC changes, and no bias could be demonstrated. There was no significant effect of climate trends since 1960 on observed SOC changes. SOC monitoring networks are being established in many countries. Our results demonstrate that detailed and long-term land management data are crucial to explain the observed SOC changes for such networks.regional inventories | soil organic carbon dynamics modeling | land use history

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Climate change cannot be entirely responsible for soil carbon loss observed in England and Wales, 1978–2003

Cited by 134 publications

References 13 publications

Bioclimatic envelope model of climate change impacts on blanket peatland distribution in Great Britain

Bioclimatic envelope model of climate change impacts on blanket peatland distribution in Great Britain

Organic Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration: What Do We Really Know About the Benefits?

Agricultural management explains historic changes in regional soil carbon stocks

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