Gemini Delle Vedove

Biochars in soils: towards the required level of scientific understanding

Key priorities in biochar research for future guidance of sustainable policy development have been identified by expert assessment within the COST Action TD1107. The current level of scientific understanding (LOSU) regarding the consequences of biochar application to soil were explored. Five broad thematic areas of biochar research were addressed: soil biodiversity and ecotoxicology, soil organic matter and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil physical properties, nutrient cycles and crop production, and soil remediation. The highest future research priorities regarding biochar’s effects in soils were: functional redundancy within soil microbial communities, bioavailability of biochar’s contaminants to soil biota, soil organic matter stability, GHG emissions, soil formation, soil hydrology, nutrient cycling due to microbial priming as well as altered rhizosphere ecology, and soil pH buffering capacity. Methodological and other constraints to achieve the required LOSU are discussed and options for efficient progress of biochar research and sustainable application to soil are presented.

Towards the co-ordination of terrestrial ecosystem protocols across European research infrastructures

Abstract The study of ecosystem processes over multiple scales of space and time is often best achieved using comparable data from multiple sites. Yet, long‐term ecological observatories have often developed their own data collection protocols. Here, we address this problem by proposing a set of ecological protocols suitable for widespread adoption by the ecological community. Scientists from the European ecological research community prioritized terrestrial ecosystem parameters that could benefit from a more consistent approach to data collection within the resources available at most long‐term ecological observatories. Parameters for which standard methods are in widespread use, or for which methods are evolving rapidly, were not selected. Protocols were developed by domain experts, building on existing methods where possible, and refined through a process of field testing and training. They address above‐ground plant biomass; decomposition; land use and management; leaf area index; soil mesofaunal diversity; soil C and N stocks, and greenhouse gas emissions from soils. These complement existing methods to provide a complete assessment of ecological integrity. These protocols offer integrated approaches to ecological data collection that are low cost and are starting to be used across the European Long Term Ecological Research community.

Afforestation and Reforestation: The Friuli Venezia Giulia Case Study

In the last decades, the European Union has favored the conversion of marginal croplands to forest plantations also to mitigate climate change by increasing carbon storage in the biosphere. In Italy, recent estimates report that forest plantations cover a total area of 122,252 ha. The aim of the present paper was to quantify carbon stock and annual carbon flux in mixed broadleaf and poplar plantation in Friuli Venezia Giulia plain. Overall, 2,592 ha of mixed broadleaf plantation (1992–2006) and 3,113 ha of poplar plantations (2002–2006) have been established in the Region with a standing carbon stock of 223,400 and 397,753 Mg C, respectively. Soil is the largest carbon pool in both plantation types (60 and 63 % of total ecosystem carbon stock). The total annual carbon sequestration is respectively 8,855 and 40,286 Mg C y−1 whereas soil accounts for 13 % in broadleaf plantations and 9 % in poplar plantations.