Contributors ................................................... ix
1 Introduction to carbon in sensitive European ecosystems:
from science to land management ............................... 1
Robert Jandl and Mats Olsson
1.1 Rationale for this book ................................... 1
1.2 What do we need to know about soils for reporting
purposes? ................................................. 3
1.3 Objectives and overview of COST Action 639 ................ 4
1.4 Working Groups of COST Action 639 ......................... 4
1.5 Regional coverage ......................................... 8
Appendix l.A Management Committee of COST Action 639 .......... 9
References .................................................. 12
2 Hot spots and hot moments for greenhouse gas emissions
from soils ................................................... 13
Frank Hagedorn and Pat Bellamy
2.1 Introduction ............................................. 13
2.2 Hot spots: where are they? ............................... 15
2.3 How to quantify hot spots? ............................... 19
2.4 Mapping soil carbon at the local and regional scale ...... 20
2.5 Case study: assessing soil carbon changes across England
and Wales ................................................ 22
2.6 Quantifying hot moments .................................. 27
2.7 Reporting of hot spots and hot moments ................... 27
2.8 Conclusions .............................................. 28
References ................................................... 28
3 Land-use change effects on soil carbon stocks in temperate
regions - development of carbon response functions .......... 33
Lars Vesterdal, Jens Leifeld, Christopher Poeplau, Axel Don
and Bas van Wesemael
3.1 Introduction ............................................. 33
3.2 Previous synthesis studies on land use change effects
on SOC ................................................... 35
3.3 The concept of carbon response functions ................. 37
3.4 Temporal dynamics of SOC after land use change in
temperate regions ........................................ 38
3.5 Implication for greenhouse gas reporting ................. 43
3.6 Conclusions .............................................. 44
References ................................................... 45
4 Carbon in European soils ..................................... 49
Rainer Baritz, Dietmar Zirlewagen, Robert Jones,
Dominique Arrouays, Roland Hiederer, Marion Schrumpf
and Winfried Riek
4.1 Existing soil carbon inventories in Europe ............... 49
4.2 Detectability of change from soil inventories ............ 57
4.3 Assessment of baseline carbon stocks in Europe ........... 70
4.4 Pattern detection and predictors for carbon storage at
landscape and continental scale .......................... 71
4.5 Conclusions about soil carbon baselines and change
detection in Europe ...................................... 79
References ................................................... 79
5 Ecosystem disturbance and soil organic carbon - a review ..... 85
Helga Van Miegroet and Mats Olsson
5.1 Introduction ............................................. 85
5.2 The carbon cycle and disturbance ......................... 86
5.3 Anthropogenic disturbance due to forest harvesting ....... 87
5.4 Natural disturbances ..................................... 93
5.5 Summary and conclusions ................................. 108
References .................................................. 108
6 Mountain soils in a changing climate - vulnerability
of carbon stocks and ecosystem feedbacks .................... 118
Sofie Sjögersten-Turner, Christine Alewell, Laurie Cécillon,
Frank Hagedorn, Robert Jandl, Jens Leifeld, Vegard Martinsen,
Andreas Schindlbacher, M. Teresa Sebastiá
and Helga Van Miegroet
6.1 Introduction ............................................ 119
6.2 Carbon stocks and their quality ......................... 121
6.3 The role of erosion for carbon fluxes ................... 125
6.4 Climate change in European mountains .................... 126
6.5 Future threats to high altitude carbon storage .......... 128
6.6 Conclusions ............................................. 138
Acknowledgement ............................................. 139
References .................................................. 139
7 Greenhouse gas balance in disturbed peatlands ............... 149
Jukka Alm, Kenneth A. Byrne, Ciara Hayes, Jens Leifeld,
and Narasinha J. Shurpali
7.1 Origins, distribution and current use of peatlands
in Europe ............................................... 149
7.2 Disturbances in undrained mires ......................... 153
7.3 Disturbances due to peatland management ................. 154
7.4 Reporting emissions of greenhouse gases from managed
peatlands ............................................... 156
7.5 Recovery from peat loss: restoration, afforestation
or energy crops? ........................................ 162
7.6 Conclusions ............................................. 168
References .................................................. 169
8 Soil carbon in Mediterranean ecosystems and related
management problems ......................................... 175
Mirco Rodeghiero, Agustin Rubio, Eugenio Diaz-Pinés,
Joan Romanyá, Sara Marañón-Jiménez, Guy J. Levy,
Ana Patricia Fernandez-Getino, Maria Teresa Sebastiá,
Theodore Karyotis, Tommaso Chiti, Costantino Sirca,
Afonso Martins, Manuel Madeira, Miglena Zhiyanski,
Luciano Gristina and Tommaso La Mantia
8.1 Introduction ............................................ 176
8.2 Mediterranean soil ...................................... 177
8.3 Soil carbon stocks in the major Mediterranean
ecosystems .............................................. 178
8.4 Effects of wildfires on soil carbon dioxide efflux in
Mediterranean ecosystems ................................ 184
8.5 Dehesas ................................................. 187
8.6 Mediterranean rangelands ................................ 194
8.7 Agricultural practices and SOC .......................... 197
8.8 Soil carbon accumulated as charcoal ..................... 199
8.9 The role of soil inorganic carbon in the carbon cycle ... 200
8.10 Conclusions ............................................ 204
Acknowledgement ............................................. 206
References .................................................. 207
9 Reporting requirements for the estimation of greenhouse gas
emissions and removals of soils in the land use sector ...... 219
Zoltan Somogyi, Ciara Hayes, Alexandra Freudenschuß
and Rainer Baritz
9.1 Introduction ............................................ 219
9.2 Information to be reported in a national
GHG inventory ........................................... 221
9.3 Concepts of estimating emissions and removals ........... 222
9.4 Carbon pools ............................................ 224
9.5 The simplified representation the forest carbon cycle ... 225
9.6 Land use and land use types, and their identification ... 226
9.7 Carbon stock changes in the mineral soil pool ........... 228
9.8 Carbon stock changes in the organic soil pool ........... 228
9.9 Possible data sources ................................... 230
9.10 Uncertainties, QA/QC and verification .................. 231
9.11 The current status of reporting carbon stock changes ... 231
References .................................................. 237
10 Estimating soil carbon stock changes by process-based
models and soil inventories - uncertainties and
complementarities .......................................... 239
Annemieke I. Gärdenäs, Per-Erik Jansson, Erik Karltun,
Leif Klemendtsson, Aleksi Lehtonen, Carina Ortiz,
Taru Palosuo and Magnus Svensson
10.1 Introduction ........................................... 239
10.2 Cases studies illustrating the use of models in
estimating SOC and GHG ................................. 243
10.3 Uncertainty in SOC stocks estimated using process-
oriented models ........................................ 259
10.4 Conclusions ............................................ 261
Acknowledgement ............................................. 262
References .................................................. 262
11 Soil carbon in sensitive European ecosystems: from science
to land management - a summary .............................. 267
Robert Jandl, Jukka Alm, Lars Vesterdal, Mats Olsson,
Peter Weiss, Sofie Sjögersten, Mirco Rodeghiero, Jens Leifeld,
Frank Hagedorn, Pat Bellamy and Rainer Baritz
11.1 Problem statement and reporting requirements ........... 268
11.2 Question on a baseline for soil carbon stocks .......... 270
11.3 Where should we measure and monitor? ................... 271
11.4 Human and non-human induced changes of the soil carbon
pool ................................................... 272
11.5 Specific cases of sensitive ecosystems ................. 276
11.6 Challenges for reporting ............................... 277
References .................................................. 278
Index ......................................................... 283
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