Publications

A New Integrated Assessment Framework for Climate-Smart Nutrition Security in sub-Saharan Africa: The Integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED)

Climate change will put millions more people in Africa at risk of food and nutrition insecurity by 2050. Integrated assessments of food systems tend to be limited by either heavy reliance on models or a lack of information on food and nutrition security. Accordingly, we developed a novel integrated assessment framework that combines models with in-country knowledge and expert academic judgement to explore climate-smart and nutrition-secure food system futures: the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED). Here, we describe iFEED and present its application in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The iFEED process begins with a participatory scenario workshop. In-country stakeholders identify two key drivers of food system change, and from these, four possible scenarios are defined. These scenarios provide the underlying narratives of change to the food system. Integrated modeling of climate change, food production and greenhouse gas emissions is then used to explore nutrition security and climate-smart agriculture outcomes for each scenario. Model results are summarized using calibrated statements—quantitative statements of model outcomes and our confidence in them. These include statements about the way in which different trade futures interact with climate change and domestic production in determining nutrition security at the national level. To understand what the model results mean for food systems, the calibrated statements are expanded upon using implication statements. The implications rely on input from a wide range of academic experts—including agro-ecologists and social scientists. A series of workshops are used to incorporate in-country expertise, identifying any gaps in knowledge and summarizing information for country-level recommendations. iFEED stakeholder champions help throughout by providing in-country expertise and disseminating knowledge to policy makers. iFEED has numerous novel aspects that can be used and developed in future work. It provides information to support evidence-based decisions for a climate-smart and nutrition-secure future. In particular, iFEED: (i) employs novel and inclusive reporting of model results and associated in-country food system activities, with comprehensive reporting of uncertainty; (ii) includes climate change mitigation alongside adaptation measures; and (iii) quantifies future population-level nutrition security, as opposed to simply assessing future production and food security implications.

Linking Soil Extracellular Enzymes with Soil Respiration Following Changes in Litter Input Rates

Soil organic carbon storage from biochar addition falls over time: a perspective of shifts in soil extracellular enzyme activity

Assessment of ecosystem services from permanent grassland systems

The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in a University Learning Environment

This article reports three related studies which investigate how undergraduates use and think about information and communication technologies (ICT) in the context of learning at university. Data were obtained via questionnaires, computer diary records and focus group discussions. The studies were intended to help universities decide how to incorporate ICT into student learning, how the cost of equipment should be shared between students and institutions, and how university provision should be organised to best fit student needs, attitudes and perceptions. Presentation of the results from the studies is followed by a discussion, which attempts to draw out the practical implications of the evaluation evidence for university policy-makers.

Climatic and Edaphic Controls on Soil pH in Alpine Grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau, China: A Quantitative Analysis

Soil science is way more fun than a proper job (Philippe Duchaufour Medal Lecture)

Human-Soil Relations are Changing Rapidly: Proposals from SSSA's Cross-Divisional Soil Change Working Group

A number of scientists have named our age the Anthropocene because humanity is globally affecting Earth systems, including the soil. Global soil change raises important questions about the future of soil, the environment, and human society. Although many soil scientists strive to understand human forcings as integral to soil genesis, there remains an explicit need for a science of anthropedology to detail how humanity is a fully fledged soil-forming factor and to understand how soil change affects human well being. The development and maturation of anthropedology is critical to achieving land-use sustainability and needs to be nurtured by all soil disciplines, with inputs from allied sciences and the humanities,. The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) has recently approved a cross-divisional Working Group on Soil Change, which aims to advance the basic and applied science of anthropedology, to facilitate networks of scientists, long-term soil field studies, and regional databases and modeling, and to engage in new modes of communications about human–soil relations. We challenge all interested parties, especially young scientists and students, to contribute to these activities and help grow soil science in the Anthropocene.

Eco-physiology and environmental impacts of newly developed rice genotypes for improved yield and nitrogen use efficiency coordinately

Carbon emission avoidance and capture by producing in-reactor microbial biomass based food, feed and slow release fertilizer: Potentials and limitations

Cost and potential of carbon abatement from the UK perennial energy crop market

Abstract Biomass produced from perennial energy crops is expected to contribute to UK renewable energy targets, reducing the carbon intensity of energy production. The UK government has had incentive policies in place targeting both farmers and power plant investors to develop this market, but growth has been slower than anticipated. Market expansion requires the interaction of farmers growing these crops, with the construction of biomass power plants or other facilities to consume them. This study uses an agent‐based model to investigate behaviour of the UK energy crop market and examines the cost of emission abatement that the market might provide. The model is run for various policy scenarios attempting to answer the following questions: Do existing policies for perennial energy crops provide a cost‐effective mechanism in stimulating the market to achieve emissions abatement? What are the relative benefits of providing incentives to farmers or energy producers? What are the trade‐offs between increased or decreased subsidy levels and the rate and level of market uptake, and hence carbon abatement? The results suggest that maintaining the energy crop scheme, which provides farmers' establishment grants, can increase both the emissions abatement potential and cost‐effectiveness. A minimum carbon equivalent abatement cost is seen at intermediate subsidy levels for energy generation. This suggests that there is an optimum level that cost‐effectively stimulates the market to achieve emissions reduction.

The consolidated European synthesis of CO2 emissions and removals for EU27 and UK: 1990-2018

<p>This dataset contains all data from figures (in csv format) and figures from the ESSD submitted paper: "<strong>The consolidated European synthesis of CO2 emissions and removals for EU27 and UK: 1990-2018"</strong>, essd-2020-376</p> <p>Petrescu, A. M. R., McGrath, M. J., Andrew,<sup> </sup>R. M., Peylin, P., Peters, G. P., Ciais, P., Broquet, G., Tubiello, F. N., Gerbig, C., Pongratz, J., Janssens-Maenhout, G., Grassi, G, Nabuurs, G.-J., Regnier, P., Lauerwald, R., Kuhnert, M.,<sup> </sup>Balkovič, J., Schelhaas, M. J., Denier van der Gon, H. A. C., Solazzo, E., Qiu, C., Pilli, R., Konovalov,<sup> </sup>I. B., Houghton, R., Günther, D., Perugini, L., Crippa, M., Ganzenmüller, R., Luijkx, I. T., Smith, P., Munassar, S., Thompson, R.L., Conchedda, G., Monteil, G., Scholze, M., Karstens, U., Brokmann, P. and Dolman, A. J.: The consolidated European synthesis of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and removals for EU27 and UK: 1990-2018, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., essd-2020-376, in review, 2020.</p>

Emissions of Nitrous Oxide from Agriculture: Responses to Management and Climate Change

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and its emissions are of great concern worldwide. This Chapter reviews the production and importance of nitrous oxide from agricultural soils and provides examples of management practices that may affect the extent of emissions from both grasslands and cereal systems. In addition, the use of geochemical models to estimate the present and future emissions of nitrous oxide is shown using DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) and DayCent (Daily Century) models as working examples.

Assessment of animal diseases caused by bacteria resistant to antimicrobials: kept fish species

In this Opinion, the antimicrobial-resistant bacteria responsible for transmissible diseases that constitute a threat to the health of certain kept fish species have been assessed. Atlantic salmon (<i>Salmo salar</i>), carp (<i>Cyprinus</i> spp.), rainbow trout (<i>Oncorhynchus mykiss</i>), sea bream (<i>Sparus aurata</i>) and tilapia (<i>Oreochromis</i> spp.), selected as representative of the most important fish species and production systems that are commercially reared in fresh and saltwater farms, were the focus of this assessment. The assessment was performed following a methodology based on information collected by an extensive literature review and expert judgement. Details of the methodology used for this assessment are explained in a separate Opinion. The global state of play of antimicrobial resistance in <i>Aeromonas hydrophila, Aeromonas salmonicida, Flavobacterium psychrophilum</i> and <i>Flavobacterium columnare</i> is provided. Among these bacteria, none was identified as being among the most relevant antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in the assessed kept fish species in the EU due to the very limited scientific evidence available.

Assessment of global scale impacts on soil organic carbon stocks under different climate change scenarios

(1) Freie Universitat Berlin, Institute of Meteorology, Carl-Heinrich-Becker-Weg 6-10, 12165 Berlin, Germany (pia.gottschalk@met.fu-berlin.de), (2) Walker Institute, Agriculture Building , University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AR, UK, (3) Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK, (4) Freie Universitat Berlin, Institute of Meteorology, Carl-Heinrich-Becker-Weg 6-10, 12165 Berlin, Germany, (5) Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, 23 St Machar Drive, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, UK

Greenhouse gas emissions from European croplans

Management in agricultural and rural development.

Comparison of approaches for estimating carbon sequestration at the regional scale

Abstract. Many former estimates of regional scale C sequestration potential have made use of linear regressions based on long‐term experimental data, whilst some have used dynamic soil organic matter (SOM) models linked to spatial databases. Few studies have compared the two methods. We present a case study in which the potential of different land management practices to sequester carbon in soil in arable land is estimated by different methods. Two dynamic SOM models were chosen for this study, RothC (a soil process model) and CENTURY (a whole ecosystem model with a SOM module). RothC and CENTURY are the two most widely used and validated SOM models worldwide. A Geographic Information System (GIS) containing soil, land use and climate layers, was assembled for a case study in central Hungary. GIS interfaces were developed for the RothC and CENTURY models, thus linking them to the spatial datasets at the regional level. This allowed a comparison of estimates of the C sequestration potential of different land management practices obtained using the two models and using regression based approaches. Although estimates obtained by the different approaches were of the same order of magnitude, differences were observed. Some of the land management scenarios studied here showed sufficient C mitigation potential to meet Hungarian CO 2 reduction commitments. For example, afforestation of 12% current arable land could sequester 0.042–0.092 Tg yr –1 in the soil alone, or 0.285–0.588 Tg C yr –1 in both soil and biomass; 1990 level CO 2 emissions for the study area were 4.7 Tg C with a corresponding reduction commitment of 0.282 Tg C. It is not, however, suggested that this is the only, or the most favourable way, in which to meet the commitments.

The potential for soil carbon sequestration using biochar from sugarcane residues: a modelling approach and a case study in São Paulo State, Brazil