Chapter 1. Effect of soil conservation practices on organic carbon in Vertisols and Luvisols of Northern Italy

In: Sustainable agroecosystems in climate change mitigation
Authors:
S. Brenna
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,
A. Rocca
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M. Sciaccaluga
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M. Grandi
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Type:
Chapter
Pages:
15–32
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-788-2_1

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Soils of the Lombardy region in northern Italy contain about 124 million tonnes of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the upper 30 cm. However, the SOC stock varies considerably throughout the region as a result of differences in bioclimatic conditions, soil types and land-use. The lowest average SOC stock (54 t/ha) was found in the croplands of the Po Plain. The current study was part of the AgriCO2ltura project whose objective was to evaluate the effect of zero tillage and conservation agriculture (CA) on SOC storage. Research sites used in our study were in different pedoclimatic locations to compare the effects of long-term of CA practices to that of traditional agricultural practices (TA) including ploughing on SOC. Results from our study showed that CA in clay soils with vertic features (Vertisols or Vertic Cambisols), formed under a mean annual precipitation of ~650 mm, had the greatest SOC accumulation. Soils under CA had a 46% higher SOC stock compared to TA management practices on the vertic soils. However, using the same CA and TA management practices on a coarse textured Luvisol, with an annual precipitation of ~735 mm, did not lead to a significant difference in SOC stocks.

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Cover Sustainable agroecosystems in climate change mitigation
E-Book ISBN:
9789086867882
Publisher:
Wageningen Academic
Print Publication Date:
08 Apr 2014
Section 1. Opportunities for carbon sequestration in agroecosystems
Section 2. Greenhouse gas emissions from agroecosystems
Section 3. Nutrient dynamics and microbe interactions
Section 4. New tools: analytical methods and modeling

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