Integrated management of a Swiss cropland is not sufficient to preserve its soil carbon pool in the long term

Emmel, Carmen; Winkler, Annina; Hörtnagl, Lukas; Revill, Andrew; Ammann, Christof; D'Odorico, Petra; Buchmann, Nina; Eugster, Werner

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5377-2018

Articles | Volume 15, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5377-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5377-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 17

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

06 Sep 2018

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 06 Sep 2018

Integrated management of a Swiss cropland is not sufficient to preserve its soil carbon pool in the long term

Carmen Emmel, Annina Winkler, Lukas Hörtnagl, Andrew Revill, Christof Ammann, Petra D'Odorico, Nina Buchmann, and Werner Eugster

Data sets

Data to Journal Article "Integrated management of a Swiss cropland is not sufficient to preserve its soil carbon pool in the long-term" Carmen Emmel, Annina Winkler, Lukas Hörtnagl, Andrew Revill, Christof Ammann, Petra D’Odorico, Nina Buchmann, and Werner Eugster https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000260058.

Short summary

It is of great interest to know whether croplands act as a net source or sink of atmospheric CO₂ and if soil carbon (C) stocks are preserved over long timescales due to the role of C in soil fertility. For a cropland in Switzerland it was found that managing the field under the Swiss framework of the Proof of Ecological Performance (PEP) resulted in soil C losses of 18.0 %. Additional efforts are needed to bring Swiss management practices closer to the goal of preserving soil C in the long term.