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Soil carbon management practices are those that add and maintain organic carbon in the soil. These agricultural practices can potentially both contribute to climate change mitigation and increase the soil's resilience to physical and biological stresses. The paper draws on research findings from five regions across Europe to identify regionally-specific barriers to and opportunities for the adoption of soil carbon management practices. Data were derived from 50 interviews with policy-makers and advisers and 5 stakeholder workshops in Denmark, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Spain. Several barriers to the uptake of soil carbon management practices were common across all regions, however, regional variations were also identified highlighting the importance of understanding the context into which these practices are introduced. Key barriers related to existing biophysical conditions, lack of financial support, farmer knowledge and experience, and the quality of the advisory service. Opportunities included providing economic incentives, harmonizing regulation, supporting long term thinking and planning for resilience and providing good quality advice. We conclude that in addition to persuasive mechanisms for encouraging the adoption of these practices, what is required is a more process-oriented approach that focuses on a series of experiential changes and fosters farmer learning through interactive models of communicative intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key narrative within climate change science is that conserving and improving soil carbon through agricultural practices can contribute to agricultural productivity and is a promising option for mitigating carbon loss through sequestration. This paper examines the potential disconnect between science and practice in the context of communicating information about soil carbon management. It focuses on the information producing process and on stakeholder (adviser, farmer representative, policy maker etc) assessment of the attributes credibility, salience and legitimacy. In doing this it draws on results from consultations with stakeholders in the SmartSOIL project which aimed to provide decision support guidelines about practices that optimise carbon mitigation and crop productivity. An iterative methodology, used to engage stakeholders in developing, testing and validating a range of decision support guidelines in six case study regions across Europe, is described. This process enhanced legitimacy and revealed the importance, and the different dimensions, of stakeholder views on credibility and salience. The results also highlight the complexities and contested nature of managing soil carbon. Some insights are gained into how to achieve more effective communication about soil carbon management, including the need to provide opportunities in projects and research programmes for dialogue to engender better understanding between science and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates farm gross margin effects of management measures aimed at enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks to maintain soil fertility while providing important ecosystem services. An optimising farm level model, ScotFarm, is used to investigate the farm gross margin effects of selected SOC management measures for arable farms in Scotland (UK) and Aragon (Spain). The sensitivity of model results to effects on crop yields and costs of production is tested for each measure. The results suggest that considerable regional differences in the financial viability of SOC measures exist. Tillage management is the only measure with positive effects on farm gross margins of Scottish farms at baseline levels of yield effects and input costs. In the case of farms in Aragon, Spain, fertiliser management, crop rotations (with legumes) and tillage management (in later years) show improvements in gross margins. Residue management is estimated to have a negative effect on farm gross margins for both Scottish and Spanish crop farms. Results of the sensitivity analysis indicate that effects of SOC management on farm gross margins are more sensitive to a change in crop yields than to changes in input costs. The findings point to further research needs with respect to the trade-offs between yield effects and changes in input costs arising from the adoption of SOC management measures, and have implications for agricultural policy design aimed at enhancing SOC stocks under a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil organic carbon (SOC) content can greatly affect soil quality by determining and maintaining important soil physical conditions, properties and soil functions. Management practices that maintain or enhance SOC affect soil quality and may favour the capacity of soils to sequester further organic carbon. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of these measures depends upon both the soil characteristics and the current SOC content. This study defines an indicator of soil potential stability (n-potential) allowing the most effective practices in terms of soil stability and capacity to store organic carbon to be selected. By relating the clay content to SOC content, the n-potential indicates the “potential” presence of non-complexed clay (NCC) in soils, enabling the soil stability and its capacity to store carbon (C) to be inferred. In this work, we classify soils of European regions based on five n-potential categories (i.e. >20; 15–20; 10–15; 5–10; <5). By relating the information provided by the n-potential to the specific texture of the analysed soils, priority actions (i.e. protecting the existing soil stability or promoting soil aggregate formation) that should be adopted are identified. Our findings show that the selection of the appropriate SOC management practices can greatly contribute improving soils of European regions in terms of quality and capacity to store organic carbon. The n-potential contributes to the understanding of the physical consequences on soils arising from implementation of SOC management practices. This can guide the development of policies promoting the application of such practices, and can help farmers to select the practices that are most effective in maintaining or increasing of SOC content and soil stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]