Among them, current soil organic carbon SOC concentration losses in croplands 0. Quantitative targets are used by policy makers to incentivize the implementation of agricultural practices that increase SOC stocks. However, there are different approaches to calculate them.
In this paper, we analyzed the effect of exogenous organic matter EOM inputs on the evolution of SOC stocks, with a particular focus on the new European targets and the different approaches to calculate them.
First, we illustrated through two case-study experiments the different targets set when the SOC stock increase is calculated considering as reference: 1 the SOC stock level at the onset of the experiment and 2 the SOC stock trend in a baseline, i. We found that, to reach a 0. Reaching a 0. Depending on the calculation method used, the estimated amounts of additional C input required to reach each quantitative target were significantly different from each other.
Furthermore, the quality of C input as represented by the C retention rate of the additional organic material EOM and crop residue , had a significant effect on the variation of SOC stocks. Our work highlights the necessity to take into consideration the additional C input required to increase SOC stocks, especially for soils with decreasing SOC stocks, when targets are set independently of the baseline.
Land based agricultural activities contribute globally to greenhouse gases GHG emissions with approximately 6. Improved management practices have the potential to reduce the impact of agriculture on GHG emissions Smith et al. The potential of agricultural soils to both mitigate climate change and increase food security through improved soil quality [e.
