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Protection and sustainable use of soils

Protection and sustainable use of soils. Estonian University of Life Sciences Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department of Soil Science and Agrochemistry. Alar Astover, Prof. Intensive programme “Soil&Water”, 26. November 2013 Ulm, Germany. Dissemination….

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Protection and sustainable use of soils

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  1. Protection and sustainableuseofsoils Estonian UniversityofLifeSciences InstituteofAgricultural and EnvironmentalSciences Departmentof Soil Science and Agrochemistry Alar Astover, Prof Intensive programme “Soil&Water”, 26. November 2013 Ulm, Germany

  2. Dissemination… A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  3. History • 1632 University of Tartu (est. by Swedish King) • 1802 Chair of Agriculture • 1919 Faculty of Agriculture • 1951 Estonian Academy of Agriculture (renamed several times and with current name since 2005)

  4. Outline A. Astover - 26.11.2013 Sustainability concept in land/soil use Soil functions Soil quality Soil information (data into decisions)

  5. Sustainable land/soil use • There are many definitions of sustainability “Development that meets the needs of the presentwithout compromising the abilityof future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission onEnvironment and Development 1987). A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  6. What is sustainable agriculture? A simple definition: An agriculture that indefinitely maintains productivity. What does it take to “maintain” productivity? “. . . If agriculture is to remain productive it must preserve the land, and the fertility and ecological health of the land; the land, that is, must be used well. A further requirement, therefore, is that if the land is to be used well, the people who use it must know it well, must be highly motivated to use it well, must know how to use it well, must have time to use it well, and must be able to afford to use it well.” Wendell Berry, “Nature as Measure” 1990 A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  7. Sustainable development (SD) • Land/soil use decisions are determined by: • Bio-physical conditions (climate, soils etc) • Socio-economic conditions (profitability, price levels, subsidies, legislation, knowledges etc) • Ethical values • Multi-criteria evaluation is essential! SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE SD ECOLOGY A. Astover – 26.11.2013

  8. The proper use of soils is best way of soil protection. The prerequisites for „good“ land use decisionsare: • availability of reliable information • and the ability to handle it. A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  9. Soils are “non-renewable”, changing in time and space, and with limited quantity A. Astover - 26.11.2013 • Pressure on soils is increasing: • Food • Feed • Fuel (bioenergy) • Fibre • Fun

  10. Ways to satisfy increasing biomass demand… A. Astover - 26.11.2013 Expandingagriculturalareas (limitedpossibilities and notacceptedbysociety) Increasingproductivity/yields (intensification) Reducingconsumption, lesswasteoffoodetc, recycling

  11. A. Astover - 26.11.2013 Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by 2050. Ray DK, Mueller ND, West PC, Foley JA (2013) PLoS ONE 8(6): e66428. Sustainableintensification?

  12. ND Mueller et al. Nature490, 254-257 (2013) doi:10.1038/nature11420 Alar Astover - 01.11.2013

  13. Sparing land for nature FAO, 2006 A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  14. Arable land per capita • The area of arable land per capita has decreased continuously worldwide, from 0.41 ha in 1960 to 0.20 ha in 2009 (Faostat). • In 2009 (Faostat): • Czech Republic 0.30 ha • Estonia 0.44 ha • France 0.28 ha • Germany 0.15 ha A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  15. Soil functions A. Astover - 26.11.2013 Biomass production (productivity) Transforming, buffering, filtering, storing (water, gases, minerals/nutrients, energy), interactions with bio-, lito-, atmo-, and hydrosphere Biodiversity and gene pool Supports socioeconomic structure, cultural and aesthetic values, platform for human activities and landscape Archive of heritage Source of raw materials

  16. Soil quality concept A. Astover - 26.11.2013 • Begging in 1970s, rising popularity since 1990s (Boune et al 2010). • EU, JRC (Toth et al 2007): • Soil quality is an account of the ability of soil to provide ecosystem and society servicesthrough its capacities to perform its functions and respond to external influences(threats). • USA (Karlen et al 1997): • “The capacity of a specific kind of soil to function, within natural or managed ecosystemboundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain orenhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation.”

  17. A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  18. A. Astover - 26.11.2013 • Soil degradation can be defined as a decline in soilquality. • Main soil degradation processes are: • erosion, • decline inorganic matter, • local and diffuse contamination, • sealing, • compaction, • decline in biodiversity, • salinisation, • floods and landslides.

  19. A. Astover - 26.11.2013 Soil quality cannot be measured witha single indicator A huge variety of minimum data sets has been proposed, purpose of the use must be considered

  20. A. Astover - 26.11.2013 Soil qualityindices formulated todate aretypically narrow in scope, mainly soil factors related to plant growthand crop productivity are used Thereis no “ideal” and universal soil qualityratingsystemsexisting Soil performs several functions simultaneously and thismakesindexingof soil qualitydifficult(Sojka et al 2003).

  21. Soil information A. Astover - 26.11.2013 • In most cases need for georeferenced data (point or polygon/area, traditional paper maps or modern GIS) • Traditional ways to get original soil data: • Soil inventory/survey/mapping • Soil monitoring • Scientific studies, long-term (field) experiments

  22. Scale is important A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  23. Panagos et al 2012 A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  24. Suuster et al 2012 A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  25. Sometimes detailed information is practical to generalize before land use recommendations A. Astover - 26.11.2013 1:10 000 soil map Map of agro-groups Reintam et al 2005

  26. Methods can differ A. Astover - 26.11.2013 • There is variety of analytical methods in use to determine the same indicator • organic carbon, humus • “plant available” P and K etc

  27. “New” ways to get soil information A. Astover - 26.11.2013 Pedotransfer functions - translating data we have into what we need Pedometrics, digital soil mapping (predictive mapping), remote sensing, modelling Models - from simple statistical to very complex simulation models

  28. Crop-soil models Reed Canary Grass – probability of dry matter yield depending on soil N content t/ha Ntot, % Probability, % Kukk et al. 2011 - Biomass and Bioenergy A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  29. Model application on the example of Tartu County Yield of Reed Canary Grass, DM t/ha Kukk et al. 2011 - Biomass and Bioenergy A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  30. Who needs soil information? A. Astover - 26.11.2013 Scientists Policy makers Land user

  31. Who understands soil information? A. Astover - 26.11.2013 • Typically only some soil scientists • Real focus should be on: • Raising awerness, education in various levels • Translating specific information understandable to the real end users

  32. Photo: P. Penu A. Astover - 26.11.2013

  33. Thank You for attention! Alar Astover, PhD Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Department of Soil Science and Agrochemistry E-mail: alar.astover@emu.ee; Web:http://pk.emu.ee/en/structure/soilscience/ 35 35 A. Astover - 26.11.2013

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