Effect of management on soil quality
| Main authors: | Luis Garrote, David Santillán, Ana Iglesias |
| iSQAPERiS Editor: | Jane Brandt |
| Source document: | Garrote L., Santillán D., Iglesias A. (2018) Report on key management practices affecting soil quality and their applicability in various farming systems. iSQAPER Project Deliverable 7.2 140 pp |
Note: The basis for the iSQAPER scaling model described in this section is defined in »Effect of farming on soil quality. The model is based on a geospatial database of soil quality indicators (SQI) and agricultural management practices (AMP) and on the relationships between AMP and SQI established on »Management practices and soil quality and »Soil quality indicators from long-term experiments. In this section we provide a general overview of the upscaling model, although it is not fully developed yet, because some the components will be developed in further work in »Soil management scenarios and »Policies and environmental footprint.
In this section of iSQAPERiS we aim to understand at the continental scale, how agricultural management practices that mitigate soil threats also affect other ecosystem services in different farming systems in Europe and China.
To do this we have designed an upscaling model that expands the scientific results generated in iSQPAPER at the local level to a wider geographical and management context.
»Approach to upscale the effect of key management practices
The upscaling model is necessarily a simplification of the complex processes that influence and are influenced by soil management at the local level.
»Quantification of soil ecosystem services at the continental scale
»Agri-climatic regions for policy analysis
The central actor in the modelling process is the farmer, who is managing a plot of land where a certain crop is grown under a typical farming system. This plot of land is subject to a physical context, determined by soil type, climate, water availability and other factors that control biophysical processes. The farmer is also immersed in a socio-economic context that influences agricultural activity: Common Agricultural Policy, environmental policy, financial instruments, market conditions and socio-economic development determine managing decision regarding crop selection and management practices. The choice of management practices is also influenced by existing soil threats, like soil erosion, desertification, loss of organic matter and many others.
Functional relations to define the effect of agricultural management practices on ecosystem services are formulated in qualitative terms.
»Effect of agricultural managment practices in diffrent agro-climatic regions in Europe and China
In order to test the results with potential changes in policy, we calculate projections of the effects of implementing a 10% increase in agricultural management practices in each agro-climatic region. The results show that even with a relatively modest 10% increase in implementation, the effect of improved management is significant in most European and China regions and all the crops considered in this study.
»Detailed spatial results of the effect of key management practices on ecosystem services