Will European soil-monitoring networks be able to detect changes in topsoil organic carbon content

• Published in: Global change biology Vol. 14; no. 10; pp. 2432 - 2442
• Main Authors: SABY, NICOLAS P.A, BELLAMY, PATRICIA H, MORVAN, XAVIER, ARROUAYS, DOMINIQUE, JONES, ROBERT J.A, VERHEIJEN, FRANK G.A, KIBBLEWHITE, MARK G, VERDOODT, ANN, ÜVEGES, JUDIT BERÉNYI, FREUDENSCHUß, ALEXANDRA, SIMOTA, CATALIN
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.10.2008; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Blackwell; Wiley
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Carbon sequestration; Climate change; Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change; concentration; detection of change; Earth, ocean, space; Environmental monitoring; Environmental regulations; Environmental Sciences; Europe; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Global Changes; Kyoto protocol; Land use; Meteorology; monitoring; network; organic carbon; soil; Soil testing; verification; Europe; Organic carbon; Top soil; Kyoto Protocol; Europe; concentration; detection of change; soil; monitoring; network; Dynamical climatology; Concentration measurement; Climate change; Soils; Carbon content; Global change; Detection; verification; PROTOCOLE DE KYOTO
• ISSN: 1354-1013; 1365-2486
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01658.x

Within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, articles 3.3 and 3.4 stipulate that some voluntary activities leading to an additional carbon (C) sequestration in soils could be accounted as C sinks in national greenhouse gas inventories. These additional C stocks should be verifiable. In this work, we assess the feasibility of verifying the effects of changes in land use or management practice on soil organic carbon (SOC), by comparing minimum detectable changes in SOC concentration for existing European networks suitable for soil monitoring. Among the tested scenarios, the minimum detectable changes differed considerably among the soil-monitoring networks (SMNs). Considerable effort would be necessary for some member states to reach acceptable levels of minimum detectable change for C sequestration accounting. For SOC, a time interval of about 10 years would enable the detection of some simulated large changes in most European countries. In almost all cases, the minimum detectable change in SOC stocks remains greater than annual greenhouse gases emissions. Therefore, it is unlikely that SMNs could be used for annual national C accounting. However, the importance of organic C in soil functions, and as an indicator of soil condition and trends, underlines the importance of establishing effective national SMNs.