Sustainable management practices for agriculture are needed to secure food safety as well as functioning of fertile soils for the future. Soil organic matter (SOM) is an important determinant of soil functions. Its increase following “best management practices” has been connected with the increase in soil physical properties such as aggregate stability, soil chemical properties such as nutrient availability as well as soil biological properties such as soil biodiversity. However, it has been shown that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may increase from the same best management practices such as crop residue incorporation or no-tillage.
This Scientific Session invites you to contribute with your experience in “best management practices” in agriculture in relation to changes in SOC and GHG emissions (such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane). This session aims to highlight studies that have examined this issue in long-term experiments and want to present experimental data. Furthermore, we want to include studies that have extensively investigated the literature and have compiled reviews or meta-analysis on the issue. Data from individual experiments, as well as national, regional and global analysis of data are highly welcome. All these studies and experiments could provide robust scientific basis for governmental agricultural policies development and help to create decision tools for stakeholders such as farmers and farm advisors. We encourage scientists that work with long-term experiments to submit an abstract to this session. Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:
- Linkages between SOC increase and GHG emission decrease
- Soil carbon balance in agriculture
- Meta-analysis of long-term experimental data
- Monitoring of SOC and GHG emissions
- Optimization of total C02 equivalent fluxes under agricultural management