Experts from the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector are one of HoliSoils’ main target stakeholders. The LULUCF group at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) Bioeconomy Unit provides science-based support to the European Commission’s services in understanding how forests mitigate and interact with climate change in the context of EU and international climate policies. Many of the results developed in HoliSoils are directly targeted to these experts and HoliSoils has established a good and regular dialogue with the group, not least through Anu Korosuo who represents JRC on the HoliSoils Stakeholder and End-User Advisory Board (SEAB).
Partners from the HoliSoils project were invited to present the project and its results so far at the 2023 JRC LULUCF workshop, held in May. The main purpose of these meetings is to provide understanding on how LULUCF regulation is interpreted and of the methods used by different member states for their GHG inventories. The May workshop focused on the needs and opportunities to enhance LULUCF reporting to support climate change mitigation targets for 2030 and beyond.
Aleksi Lehtonen (Luke) presented the HoliSoils project while Mart-Jan Schelhaas (WUR) presented on EFISCEN-Space, the high-resolution forest resource model being updated as part of the project. Hans Verkerk (EFI), also a partner in HoliSoils, presented the ForestPaths project, of which he is coordinator. HoliSoils is working with ForestPaths and other relevant EU-funded projects to ensure synergies between activities and avoid duplicating efforts.
The LULUCF workshop combined overview sessions on the state-of-art of the GHG inventories and the revised LULUCF regulation. Specific sessions focused on moving to higher Tiers in reporting, and on the use of geographically-explicit data and new advances in remote sensing in GHG inventories.
Interesting for HoliSoils is that countries will need to improve their GHG inventory methods in the near future. While many countries do well with forest biomass reporting, there is room for improvement: most countries use Tier 1 but will need to move to Tier 2 by 2028. HoliSoils is providing tools to support such a transition, with a model ensemble tool currently in a beta phase and soon to be launched. Also of interest is the HoliSoils peat map (and other maps) under development, which will support spatially explicit reporting and improve land-use change estimates by providing soil data, contributing to the reporting needed for biodiversity and emission hot-spots.
I am Qian Li, now working in the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) in the HoliSoils project. I graduated with a PhD in 2021, then joined Luke as a post-doctoral researcher. My background is on peatland green-house gases (GHG) emissions and carbon (C) cycle under the effect of climate warming. Now in the HoliSoils project, my research focuses on how forest management and natural disturbances affect the GHG emissions and soil processes of peatland forests.
My research in HoliSoils
I mainly work in Ränskälänkorpi, a drained peatland forest located in the Southern Finland. This site has three different forest management practices: clearcutting, selection harvesting, and non-harvested control.
We measure total respiration (CO2 emissions) and other greenhouse gases (CH4 and N2O) exchange by putting a manual chamber on top of soil and linking it with a gas concentration analyzer. Then the concentration change of gas emit/uptake by soil is analyzed by the analyzer linked with the chamber. We do it to discover which forest management practices can help mitigate climate change through reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This information can also help policy makers when they consider how to manage forests to achieve the climate targets.
Manual chamber measurement. Photo: Qian Li
To understand the production, consumption and transportation of gases inside soil layers, we also measure the gas concentration in the soil profile by taking gas samples through the silicon tubes buried underground.
We are also interested in knowing about the drivers of soil processes. So, we also take soil samples from surface to 1 meter deep to analyze microbial community structure and soil chemistry.
Uprooting. Photo: Qian Li
In this site, we also study how natural disturbances i.e. storms or windthrows impact soil C and N cycle. In addition to causing breakdown of tree stands, such disturbances can also destroy the upper soil layer by uprooting, or adding woody debris to soil surface, which all impact the soil processes. Especially extreme events are expected to be more frequent due to climate change, so it’s now urgent to know the consequences of such disturbances on ecosystems.
Photo: Qian Li
My feeling to be a member of HoliSoils family
HoliSoils is an EU project in which there are partners from several different European countries as well as from Uruguay and Japan. After joining this project and communicating with them, I have extended my knowledge scale of what kind of research topics they are focusing on and what novel techniques or analysis they are using in their research.
As a researcher who mainly focuses on experiments and field monitoring, I now have a deeper understanding of how models can use our experimental data and help us predict. As my first job after PhD, I am so happy to join Luke and HoliSoils project. This work experience not only brings me the knowledge and skills in science but also extends my network, which could help me to build my future career.
Extreme heatwaves, wildfires, floods, droughts… The effects of climate change are no longer predictions: they are happening right now. And, according to the experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), they will continue to happen and become more and more intense in the future.
So, what can we do to stop them?
Most importantly, we need to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), such as carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel burning and deforestation, and nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) from agriculture. But this is still not enough. In order to achieve carbon neutrality (that is, a net zero difference between what we emit and what we put back in the soil) we will need additional efforts to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in the soil.
This can be done, for example, by avoiding deforestation and improving the management of agricultural soils.
Soil
Soils play a crucial role for C sequestration:
They store the largest amount of C compared to all other terrestrial ecosystems.
They also store twice to three times more C than the atmosphere and – because the soil and the atmosphere interchange C – this means that even small changes in the soil C stocks can have a huge impact on the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
C improves the fertility and other functions of the soils, so having soils rich in C is beneficial for food production.
Basically, storing more C in the soil can help to mitigate climate change and feed the world!
How can we restore carbon in the soil?
Carbon is naturally brought to the soil through plant photosynthesis and organic matter deposition. It leaves the soil once microbes and other organisms decompose it and respire it back to the atmosphere. Hence, storing additional soil organic C (SOC) can be done in two ways:
By increasing the amount of C entering the soil (e.g., the amount of CO2 fixed by the plants, or the amount of organic material added to the soil)
By decreasing the C output from the soil (e.g., decreasing the rate of microbial decomposition)
Researchers have found that the most efficient way to store C is to increase the C input to the soil.
Figure 1Global carbon cycle between the land and the atmosphere. The values were taken from Ciais et al. (2013). Uncertainty in the atmospheric CO2 growth rate is ± 0.02 Gt C yr-1. Figure adapted from Le Quéré et al. (2018). Icons from www.flaticon.com.
How much should we increase the C input?
Assuming that we aim to increase the SOC stocks by a certain fixed target, we estimated the additional C input required to reach this target, and assessed whether this amount is realistic with current land use management practices. Following the4 per 1000 initiative, we set the target to an annual 4‰ increase of the SOC stocks.
In order to address these questions, we used mathematical models that simulate the processes that influence the accumulation of C in the soil and estimated the additional C input required to reach a 4‰ objective in Europe.
The methods used
We used data from 16 long-term agricultural experiments where agricultural practices with organic matter addition were carried out for several years under controlled conditions. At these experiments, pedo-climatic conditions were monitored over time in order to see the effect of organic matter addition on the system.
Mathematical models are largely used by soil scientists and policy makers to predict the evolution of SOC stocks with time, following changes in land management practices and climate. They help to better understand the behavior of the system, and to predict its future responses to external changes. However, they are still highly uncertain. This is mainly due to the uncertainty of:
The processes described in the models, which are still largely unknown;
The data used to run them, such as climate and soil variables;
The parameters that are included in the model equations, which are usually considered constant although they actually vary in space and time, and which values are not always related to measurable physical processes.
In order to estimate some of this uncertainty, instead of running one single model we ran a multi-model ensemble, which allowed to consider different ways of representing soil processes.
We also calibrated model parameters in order to correctly reproduce the evolution of measured SOC stocks. This means that we adjusted the values of model parameters to reproduce the conditions of the sites that we studied.
Feasibility of the 4 per 100
On average across the models and across the sites, we found that the C input had to increase by 119% compared to the initial conditions. That is, an additional 1.5 ± 1.2 Mg C ha-1 would need to be annually input to the soil in order to increase the SOC stocks by 4‰ each year.
To give an order of magnitude, we estimated from Zhang et al. (2017) that the annual C input applied to European croplands, derived only from livestock manure, is around 0.3 to 0.9 Mg C ha-1. But this is already applied! Meaning that, if we wanted to provide additional 1.5 ± 1.2 Mg C ha-1, that would need to come from different sources of organic material. Doubling the C input where mineral and organic fertilizers are already applied is unlikely without the implementation of other agricultural practices, such as agroforestry systems, cover cropping, improved crop rotations, and crops with a high belowground biomass. This is the case for Europe, for example, where croplands are usually minerally fertilized and where organic fertilizers are already widely applied.
Figure 2 Annual SOC stock increase (%) for different levels of additional C input in agricultural experiments (black spots) and additional C input required to reach the 4‰ SOC increase according to the 1) non-calibrated multi-model median (MMM) (blue cross) and the 2) calibrated MMM (orange cross). Errors are shown as confidence intervals (CI) The regression line between additional C input and SOC stock increase in the EOM treatments is indicated in the figure (y=m (±〖SD〗_m)∙ x + b ± 〖(SD〗_b)).
Model uncertainties
Concerning the model simulations, we found large uncertainties across models, even when they were calibrated to reproduce the observed SOC stocks of the experiments. In particular, we found that the uncertainty across models was mainly due to the way the models represented (or not) water related variables, such as precipitations and potential evapotranspiration. This indicates that the choice of the hydrological processes included in the models and their representation affect model predictions, and it suggests that major efforts should be made to better represent these processes and reduce their associated uncertainties.
Figure 3 Required additional C input (± standard deviation, SD) relative to the unfertilized control, to reach a mean annual 4‰ SOC stock increase for 30 years across the 16 sites. The bars represent the different models and multi-model median (MMM). The non-calibrated and calibrated configurations are in blue and orange, respectively. For the MMM, the SD bar represents the median SD across models.Figure 4 Heatmap of the simulated additional C input to reach the 4‰, for each calibrated model and each site. Darker cells show lower C input and lighter cells represent higher C input. Dendrograms above the heatmap represent the relationship of similarity among groups of models, calculated as the minimal correlation distance.
Conclusions and perspectives
Despite uncertainties in model simulations, there is compelling evidence that a radical change in agricultural management will be required to cope with climate change and food security in the near future. In a recent report from the Mission Board for Soil Health and Food, the European Commission was suggested to set ambitious targets to increase SOC stocks and improve the health of European soils. Yet, we are far from being optimistic. The last fifty years of international agreements on the response of world nations to climate change have proven that, no matter how compelling evidence the scientific community provides, indicators of adverse change are still on a rise (Glavovic et al., 2021). Governments need to take action before it is too late.
Diversity in science
In the last decades, thousands of works have been published on the effects of land management, land-use change and climate change on SOC. However, studies are narrowed to a selected number of specific drivers and geographical regions. In fact, studies on agricultural management practices have mostly focused on mineral fertilization, organic amendments, and tillage, while drivers of SOC changes have only occasionally been studied in North and Central Africa, and in the Middle East and Central Asia (Beillouin et al., 2022).
Future research should focus on more local and diversified knowledge on how to preserve and restore SOC stocks, while covering understudied geographical regions.
Besides, increased knowledge on the effects of diversified practices on SOC stock changes, under different pedo-climatic conditions, will help to improve model simulations and provide reliable SOC stock projections under future climate change.
Beillouin, Damien, Rémi Cardinael, David Berre, Annie Boyer, Marc Corbeels, Abigail Fallot, Frédéric Feder, and Julien Demenois. “A Global Overview of Studies about Land Management, Land‐use Change, and Climate Change Effects on Soil Organic Carbon.” Global Change Biology 28, no. 4 (February 2022): 1690–1702. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15998.
Bruni, Elisa, Bertrand Guenet, Yuanyuan Huang, Hugues Clivot, Iñigo Virto, Roberta Farina, Thomas Kätterer, Philippe Ciais, Manuel Martin, and Claire Chenu. “Additional Carbon Inputs to Reach a 4 per 1000 Objective in Europe: Feasibility and Projected Impacts of Climate Change Based on Century Simulations of Long-Term Arable Experiments.” Biogeosciences 18, no. 13 (July 2, 2021): 3981–4004. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3981-2021.
Bruni, Elisa, Bertrand Guenet, Hugues Clivot, Thomas Kätterer, Manuel Martin, Iñigo Virto, and Claire Chenu. “Defining Quantitative Targets for Topsoil Organic Carbon Stock Increase in European Croplands: Case Studies With Exogenous Organic Matter Inputs.” Frontiers in Environmental Science 10 (February 14, 2022): 824724. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.824724.
Chenu, Claire, Denis A. Angers, Pierre Barré, Delphine Derrien, Dominique Arrouays, and Jérôme Balesdent. “Increasing Organic Stocks in Agricultural Soils: Knowledge Gaps and Potential Innovations.” Soil and Tillage Research 188 (May 2019): 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2018.04.011.
Glavovic, Bruce C., Timothy F. Smith, and Iain White. “The Tragedy of Climate Change Science.” Climate and Development, December 24, 2021, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2021.2008855.
Martin, Manuel Pascal, Bassem Dimassi, Mercedes Ŕomàn Dobarco, Bertrand Guenet, Dominique Arrouays, Denis A. Angers, Fabrice Blache, Frédéric Huard, Jean‐François Soussana, and Sylvain Pellerin. “Feasibility of the 4 per 1000 Aspirational Target for Soil Carbon. A Case Study for France.” Global Change Biology, February 4, 2021, gcb.15547. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15547.
Riggers, Catharina, Christopher Poeplau, Axel Don, Cathleen Frühauf, and René Dechow. “How Much Carbon Input Is Required to Preserve or Increase Projected Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in German Croplands under Climate Change?” Plant and Soil 460, no. 1–2 (March 2021): 417–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04806-8.
Soussana, Jean-François, Suzanne Lutfalla, Fiona Ehrhardt, Todd Rosenstock, Christine Lamanna, Petr Havlík, Meryl Richards, et al. “Matching Policy and Science: Rationale for the ‘4 per 1000 – Soils for Food Security and Climate’ Initiative.” Soil and Tillage Research 188 (May 2019): 3–15.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2017.12.002.
Zhang, Bowen, Hanqin Tian, Chaoqun Lu, Shree R. S. Dangal, Jia Yang, and Shufen Pan. “Global Manure Nitrogen Production and Application in Cropland during 1860–2014: A 5 Arcmin Gridded Global Dataset for Earth System Modeling.” Earth System Science Data 9, no. 2 (September 6, 2017): 667–78. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-667-2017.
Forest soils are larger carbon stocks than the trees that grow on them. Yet global studies on forest carbon stock changes often focus on wood biomass, wood products or various offsetting effects.
As the European Union strives to find measures to achieve vital climate targets, a new policy brief from the European Forest Institute shows how considering forest soils in improved management practices increases climate change mitigation. Forest management practices can affect soil carbon stock, soil CO2 emissions, and net exchange of other greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Increasing forest soils’ capacity to store carbon and reduce net GHG emissions is crucial for the EU’s target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
This policy brief is based on a publication by the HoliSoils project which emphasises that the European forest sector needs a comprehensive understanding of the carbon sequestration potential of soils to help design climate change mitigation measures.
“The impact of forest management on soils is less studied and is treated in a highly simplified way in decision-making, even though forest management is crucial for achieving carbon neutrality objectives for terrestrial ecosystems,” says research professor Raisa Mäkipää from the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and HoliSoils project coordinator. “Soil is the largest carbon stock in the forest, and it can be either a large sink or a source of GHGs, which are affected by forest management decisions”.
Practices which can affect forest soils include management of nutrients, tree stands, hydrology, biodiversity, and fire, as well as site preparation after harvesting or disturbance.
Management practices affect soil C stock, CO2, CH4, N2O emissions in temperate and boreal forests. (Green arrow indicates positive impacts for climate change mitigation and orange arrow negative impacts for climate change mitigation).
Recommendations in the brief include better accounting of forest soil responses to management practices, integrating their effects into existing modelling tools, and creating awareness of the importance of soil mitigation potential for climate change mitigation. The brief also calls for considering site-specific conditions for climate-smart forest management practices and reducing knowledge gaps in understanding how soil carbon balances and GHG emissions are affected by forest management, climate, biodiversity loss, and other environmental changes, as well as their trade-offs.
What is clear is that long-term soil monitoring is needed to verify targeted changes in soil carbon sequestration and reductions of GHG emissions to confirm which management practices are efficient in climate change mitigation, a goal to which the HoliSoils project is working hard to contribute.
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) is looking for a postdoctoral researcher in a multidisciplinary research team, which develops sustainable land-use and ecosystem management practices. The researcher will work in a team involved international projects, including Benchmarks and HoliSoils, where it executes field experiments on both peatland and upland forests to study ecosystem processes and to test management regime impacts on ecosystem water, carbon and greenhouse gas fluxes. The postdoctoral researcher will be engaged in an active international collaboration that aims at improving the scientific knowledge about soil processes, soil indicators, and the effects of management on forest soils.
The researcher will study how forest management affects soil element cycles, greenhouse gas fluxes and their drivers. The researcher will:
Implement field experiment, where effects of management practices and natural disturbances on soil biological activity and greenhouse gas fluxes are studied;
Analyze obtained empirical data;
Evaluate and develop soil health indicators.
The researcher will also be responsible for scientific writing and reporting of the results as a lead author.
The deadline for applications is 23 May 2023 at 4.00 pm Finnish time (EEST).
The National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA) of Uruguay organised a communication session in April to share information about the international HoliSoils project and the work carried out in the country. The meeting was held at INIA’s experimental station in Tacuarembó and was attended by more than 30 people, including undergraduate and postgraduate students, representatives of the private sector, and the general public.
The aim of the meeting in Uruguay was to present the project to the different actors involved in forestry activities. A talk was given on the problem of soil studies for better management and conservation. Finally, members of the Uruguayan HoliSoils team presented the activities in the experimental sites that are being carried out in the framework of the project.
Remote sensing and machine learning-based approaches are key to detect, predict and analyse changes in forests under climate change. The training offered in this summer school will include theory lectures, on climate resilience and remote sensing, practical exercises and a field trip to disturbed areas. Other subject studies are dynamics of boreal forests and forestry in the boreal region.
Participants will have the opportunity to work in groups, learning how to retrieve remote sensing data, detect and analyse forest change, classify data, as well as making predictions of forest damage (i.e. disturbances).
The summer school will be organised at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu Finland, in collaboration with INRAeand the Horizon Europe Eco2adapt project and the support from IUFRODivision 8 on Forest Environment.
The programme will take place from 7 to 18 August 2023.
The main topical contents will be:
Forestry in boreal forests, Finland
Which forests are prone to disturbances in boreal areas?
Planetary Computer and remote sensing data
Monitoring disturbances and their management (i.e. mitigation measures)
Machine learning theory
Change detection analyses
The person in charge for this summer school is Frank Berninger () and the involved experts include Frank Berninger (UEF, Finland), Blas Mola (UEF, Finland), Dino Ienco (Inrae, TETIS, France), Kenji Ose (Inrae, TETIS, France).
A new podcast episode investigates the consequence of water deprivation to trees. Peter Wohlleben, a NY-times bestselling author and forester, interviews Dr. Karin Pritsch, from the Helmholtz Institutes, and Prof. Thorsten Grams, from the Technical University of Munich. The two scientists recount the five-year experiment they perform to study the ability of trees to cope with these extreme drought conditions.
The experts talk in detail about what happens below the ground when no water is given to the soil for five years: in particular, they focus on the quantitative decline of roots and mycorrhizae. Listen to the full episode (in German)
A new postdoc position has been opened at the Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, with a focus on microbial processes in soil.
The ideal candidate has strong quantitative skills (statistical or process-based modelling) to quantify how microbial diversity affects carbon cycling in soil, and how to describe these linkages in soil carbon cycling models. The selected candidate will work with Stefano Manzoni on either HoliSoils project, or the ERC project “Soil microbial responses to land use and climatic changes in the light of evolution”. Both projects tackle questions at the intersection of ecology, soil science, and biogeosciences, and offer outstanding international networking opportunities.
Forest soil is a larger carbon storage than trees, and forest management affects soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon sinks. A publication by the international HoliSoils project emphasises that the European forest sector needs a comprehensive understanding of the carbon sequestration potential of soils. This will help design climate change mitigation measures.
Global studies on forest carbon sinks often focus on wood biomass, wood product sinks or various offsetting effects. Analyses of soil carbon sequestration potential have largely focused on afforestation or avoiding deforestation. Current tools and scenario analyses used to support decision making focus on the carbon sinks of growing trees.
“The impact of forest management on soils is less studied and is treated in a highly simplified way in decision-making, even though forest management is crucial for achieving carbon neutrality objectives for terrestrial ecosystems. Soil is the largest carbon storage in the forest, and it can be either a large sink or a source of GHGs, which are affected by forest management decisions”, says research professor Raisa Mäkipää from the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).
Professor Mäkipää and her international research team wrote a research article on the effects of forest management practices on soil carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions. The article, which was published in Forest Ecology and Management as part of the EU-funded HoliSoils project, involved a total of 30 researchers from Europe and Japan.
The choice of tree species and silvicultural practices have a major impact on soil emissions
Soil is a source of GHGs in drained peatlands. Emissions are higher in areas where the soil is rich in nutrients and where drainage has caused drawdown of the water table level. In drained peatlands, soil emissions increase very significantly after clear-cutting. In nutrient-rich peatlands, soil emissions continue throughout the growth cycle and are greater than the carbon sink of the trees.
“However, organic soil emissions can be reduced through forest management, restoring water regime optimising both tree growth and peat decomposition, and management on mineral soils should sustain carbon sinks over time to help meet climate goals”, Professor Mäkipää reflects.
Soil carbon stocks are usually lower in deciduous forests than in coniferous or mixed forests, because deciduous forests tend to have lower growth and biomass production than coniferous forests and because deciduous woody debris is more easily degradable and stimulates the activity of soil organisms.
In the mineral soils of the northern coniferous forest zone, nitrogen fertilisation increases soil carbon stocks. In mineral soils, the soil carbon stock decreases after clear-cutting, especially in the organic layer. Tillage during reforestation can increase the rate of organic matter decomposition, but better seedling stand growth and higher litter yield can compensate for the carbon released during decomposition. The slower the regeneration of the clear-cut area and new growth takes to get going, the longer it will take for the soil to turn back into a carbon sink. Soil carbon stocks will start to increase 10-50 years after clear-cutting.
In deciduous forests, carbon stocks tend to be lower as soil organisms are not as active as in mixed or coniferous forests. Photo: Polina Tankilevitch / Pexels
Forest management guidelines and forestry subsidies to be reformed
The forest sector needs a holistic understanding of soil carbon sequestration potential. Information that only considers tree cover can lead to ineffective climate policy and suboptimal use of resources in designing mitigation measures. Increasing research knowledge on the effects of forest management on soil carbon sinks and GHG emissions needs to be linked to models used to support planning and decision-making.
“Forest management practices must be made climate resilient. Clear-cutting and drainage of spruce-drained peatlands should be avoided wherever possible. On grasslands, moderate thinning to maintain the growth of the seedling stand, coniferous domination, and increasing the rotation period strengthen the carbon sink, and rapid regeneration after clear-cutting curbs the decline in soil carbon stocks”, Professor Mäkipää recommends.
Forest policy and management should be based on the latest scientific knowledge on soil emissions and carbon sequestration potential. The importance of soil should be included when updating forest management guidelines and when renewing forestry subsidies.
The impact of forestry practices on soil and climate change mitigation
Tree species selection, harvesting practises, nutrients addition, fire risk management, hydrological restoration of peatlands and biodiversity conservation can mitigate climate change.
Forest management must consider regional differences. The impact of silvicultural management on soil depends on the intensity of silvicultural treatment, soil type (organic/mineral soil) and soil conditions (nutrients, moisture, pH), topography, vegetation composition, climatic conditions, and recovery time after management.
Selection of tree species considering site-specific conditions, can increase soil carbon stocks. The tree species favourable to the area can increase forest productivity and the amount of dead organic matter transferred to the soil.
Frequent and light thinning maintains the density of the forest stand. Continuous cover forestry produces relatively steady tree growth and steady litterfall accumulates soil organic matter. Heavy thinning and clear-cutting, on the other hand, reduce soil carbon stocks after felling.
In the northern coniferous forest zone, nitrogen fertilisation of mineral soils and wood ash fertilisation of peatlands with high forest cover increases both forest productivity (trees, undergrowth vegetation) and soil carbon stocks, as the amount of litter produced and released to the soil increases.
Reducing woody biomass and preventing the growth of undergrowth vegetation in Mediterranean forests can reduce soil carbon loss from forest fires.
In drained peatlands with trees, maintain high water table and avoiding clear-cutting will reduce GHG emissions.
The publication is part of the HoliSoils project, and the research flagship UNITE. HoliSoils is an EU-funded research project that develops and tests land management practices to mitigate climate change and maintain the provision of a range of ecosystem services essential for human livelihoods and well-being. UNITEis a centre of excellence for high-quality research and social impact and one of the flagships of the Academy of Finland.
Raisa Mäkipää Research Professor Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) +358295322197
Aleksi Lehtonen Research Professor Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) +358295322362
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