Sensitivity to information upscaling of agro-ecological assessments: Application to soil organic carbon management

Bechini, Luca; Castoldi, Nicola; Stein, Alfred

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2011.03.005

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In cattle breeding farms, there was an increase in SOM content, whereas in sheep farms, the balance was negative. This trend is also observed by Bechini et al (2011) and Morari et al (2006). This may be due to the different management and agricultural practices of the two farming systems.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Of the various indicators and models described in the literature to estimate the SOM balance (Mary and Guerif, 1994;Andriulo et al 1999;Bockstaller and Girardin, 2003;Bayer et al, 2006;Castoldi and Bechini, 2009), the equation developed by Hénin and Dupuis (1945) still forms the basis of all these indicators and models (Bockstaller et al, 2008;Bertora et al, 2009;Bechini et al, 2011;Di Bene et al, 2011). This equation is based on first order kinetics and is useful for estimating how SOM evolves, for testing hypotheses and for field-scale analyses (Huggins et al, 1998).…”

Section: Soil Organic Matter Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As proposed by Mary and Guerif (1994) and Bechini et al (2011), a dimensionless correction factor of the mineralisation coefficient (P) was used for the inclusion of farm soil management. P was calculated as:…”

Section: Soil Organic Matter Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This database has a 1:250,000 spatial resolution and it was obtained either by 1360 pre-existing measurements within the Tuscan Region and new 370 profiles done during a field campaign started in 1999. Following Bechini et al (2011), we overlaid a soil map with an on-farm field database. We derived different parameters from the soil characteristics database: % of rock fragments, soil texture, % of SOM, % of lime, and pH (Table 3).…”

Section: Spatial Databasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors Affecting Soil Organic Matter Conservation in Mediterranean Hillside Winter Cereals-Legumes Cropping Systems

Marraccini

Debolini

Bene

et al. 2012

Italian Journal of Agronomy

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Soil conservation is an important issue for farming and environmental protection in Mediterranean areas. Hillside farming systems, based on winter cereals and legumes, are common in these areas and are the target of several environmental policies. Soil organic matter (SOM) is widely used to assess the environmental performance of these cropping systems. Nevertheless, few studies have considered soil conservation practices in hillside systems in terms of implementing more effective agro-environmental policies for these areas. This paper compares the SOM conservation of different winter cereal based cropping systems within Mediterranean hillside crops/livestock farms. Seventeen cropping systems were characterised by on-farm surveys in the inland hilly area of Grosseto (Tuscany, Italy). For each cropping system, we performed a SOM balance, based on Hénin-Dupuis' equation, using either local environmental databases or data from on-farm surveys. Differences between cropping systems were analysed by the Kruskal-Wallis test. On average, the cropping systems identified did not guarantee SOM conservation and varied considerably from farm to farm, however, some practices seemed to have a positive performance, e.g. cropping systems of cattle farms. According to the literature, annual SOM balance differs significantly depending on crop rotation length and longer crop rotations performed better than shorter ones. However, we found a local effect indicating that this better performance was influenced by local farmers' cooperatives, which to some extent counteracted the negative effect of crop rotation length. There were significant differences in the performance of dairy sheep and cattle farms (-1031 kg ha -1 yr -1 vs +103 kg ha -1 yr -1 , respectively). This suggests that the presence of livestock did not have the same favorable effect on soil conservation in Mediterranean systems and that this factor should be more investigated. Surprisingly, in our sample, for the same crop rotation length, livestock density did not affect the annual SOM balance. Due to the high variability in local cropping systems and soil characteristics, further surveys on a larger farm sample and field soil measurement are needed to confirm these trends and validated the regional soil database. However, our results shed light on the soil conservation effects of Mediterranean hillside cropping systems of winter cereals and legumes, and could support the local implementation of agro-environmental measures.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Soil Organic Matter Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Soil Organic Matter Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spatial Databasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Factors Affecting Soil Organic Matter Conservation in Mediterranean Hillside Winter Cereals-Legumes Cropping Systems

Marraccini

Debolini

Bene

et al. 2012

Italian Journal of Agronomy

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“…Upscaling of environmental indicators applied in regional analyses is sensitive to scale issues of the input Data (Bechini et al, 2011). Environmental assessments are frequently carried out with indicators (Viglizzo et al, 2006) and simulation models (Saffih-Hdadi and Mary, 2008).…”

Section: Upscalingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Descriptive Statistical Indicators for Aggregating Environmental Data in Multi-Scale European Databases

Panagos¹,

Yiğini²,

Montanarella³

2012

Modern Information Systems

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Soil organic carbon stocks under recommended management practices in different soils of semiarid vineyards

et al. 2019

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approach is widely used to estimate the C account through the use of standardized coefficients that are not site specific. For these reasons, the aim of the work was to define specific IPCC coefficient taking into account differences in pedological characteristics that affect soil C steady state. In a vineyard area of Sicily, the effectiveness of 5 years of recommended management practice (RMP) adoption on soil organic carbon (SOC) stock increases was evaluated by considering 100 paired sites distributed over four functional soil groups. Each site consisted of two neighbouring plots. The soil of one plot was managed with cover crops according to RMP, and the other plot was managed with conventional tillage practices. IPCC coefficients were also derived and specifically adjusted for semiarid environments. SOC changes following RMP adoption and SOC steady‐state levels were correlated with functional soil groupings. SOC increased from 24.8 to 28.3 t ha−1 in conventional and RMP vineyards, respectively, with the highest increases being observed in vertic and the lowest in calcic soils. The management factor (Fmg) ranged from 1.11 for calcaric to 1.44 for vertic functional soil groups. C maintenance requirement (C input) should be estimated in relation to soil functional groups. Findings of this study highlighted how the fine tuning of C steady state in relation to specific environmental characteristics is necessary to avoid overestimation of soil C sequestration. Awareness of correct soil C sequestration potential is useful for policymakers and stakeholders for future C account and land degradation control planning.

show abstract

Sensitivity to information upscaling of agro-ecological assessments: Application to soil organic carbon management

Cited by 9 publications

References 28 publications

Factors Affecting Soil Organic Matter Conservation in Mediterranean Hillside Winter Cereals-Legumes Cropping Systems

Factors Affecting Soil Organic Matter Conservation in Mediterranean Hillside Winter Cereals-Legumes Cropping Systems

Use of Descriptive Statistical Indicators for Aggregating Environmental Data in Multi-Scale European Databases

Soil organic carbon stocks under recommended management practices in different soils of semiarid vineyards

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