Soil Carbon Investigation in Three Pedoclimatic and Agronomic Settings of Northern Italy

Abstract

Sustainable agricultural management is needed to promote carbon (C) sequestration in soil, prevent loss of soil fertility, and reduce the release of greenhouse gases. However, the influence of agronomic practices on soil C sequestration depends on the existing pedoclimatic features. We characterized the soils of three farms far away each other in the Emilia-Romagna region (Northern Italy): an organic farm in the Northern Apennines, a biodynamic farm, and a conventional farm on the Po Plain. The total, inorganic, and organic carbon in soil, as well as the distinct humic fractions were investigated, analyzing both the elemental and isotopic (13C/12C) composition. In soils, organic matter appears to be variously affected by mineralization processes induced by microorganisms that consume organic carbon. In particular, organic carbon declined in farms located in the plain (e.g., organic carbon down to 0.75 wt%; carbon stock0-30 cm down to 33 Mg/ha), because of the warmer climate and moderately alkaline environment that enhance soil microbial activity. On the other hand, at the mountain farm, the minimum soil disturbance, the cold climate, and the neutral conditions favored soil C sequestration (organic carbon up to 4.42 wt%; carbon stock0-30 cm up to 160 Mg/ha) in humified organic compounds with long turnover, which can limit greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. This work shows the need for thorough soil investigations, to propose tailored best-practices that can reconcile productivity and soil sustainability.

Carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur isotope analysis of the Padanian Plain sediments: Backgrounds and provenance indication of the alluvial components

“…The difference cannot be related to a distinct fertilization history as proposed for other studycases (Kanstrup et al, 2011) and must be interpreted as a distinctive character of the sediment source area, which is peculiar for every hydrological basin (Li et al, 2020). In general, the  13 COC is controlled by the distribution of C3 and C4 plants, as according to their photosynthetic pathways the δ 13 CTC ranges from -21‰ and -35‰ for C3 plants and from -9‰ to -20‰ for C4 plants (O'Leary, 1988;Meier et al, 2014;Brombin et al, 2020). Moreover, in aquatic ecosystems the isotopic composition of the transported organic matter is also influenced by the autochthon growth of biomass constituted by algae and plankton (Finlay and Kendall, 2007).…”

Comparison of Two Methods for Total Inorganic Carbon Estimation in Three Soil Types in Mediterranean Area

“…The discrepancies in the results observed in the TIC-TOC relationship can be attributed to many factors, including soil properties, climate conditions, and land management practices, which affect the processes of precipitation and dissolution of carbonate, soil organic matter mineralization, etc. [28,29,33]. In particular, Brombin et al [33] observed that soil organic carbon content decreased with the age of the pear trees, while IC showed the opposite trend, probably due to the progressive formation of pedogenic carbonates and consumption of organic matter (and OC), induced by plant growth that extracts nutritive elements from soils.…”

“…[28,29,33]. In particular, Brombin et al [33] observed that soil organic carbon content decreased with the age of the pear trees, while IC showed the opposite trend, probably due to the progressive formation of pedogenic carbonates and consumption of organic matter (and OC), induced by plant growth that extracts nutritive elements from soils. Moreover, the relationship between TIC and pH was significantly positive, in agreement with other researches that highlighted that high soil pH/salinity were correlated to high levels of TIC, probably owing to high levels of Ca 2+ /Mg 2+ [34,35].…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Peer Reviewed Literature on Sustainable Agriculture Research – Challenges and Prospects

“…Climate-smart agriculture envisages a mechanism to ensure reducing dependability on environmental resources without affecting productivity (Rampa et al, 2020). Essential to reducing dependency on irrigation and ensuring judicious use of water resources is the research into water use efficiencies of crops (Brombin et al, 2020), identification of cultivars with lower water requirements (Wakchaure et al, 2021), adoption of technology such as adsorption based atmospheric water harvesting (Wang et al, 2021) and use of moisture adsorbent gels (Zhou et al, 2020). Additionally, microclimate modeling techniques to predict crop suitability and enable food production have been studied (Gardner et al, 2021).…”