The Effects of Soil Improving Cropping Systems (SICS) on Soil Erosion and Soil Organic Carbon Stocks across Europe: A Simulation Study

Jantiene E. M. Baartman, Joao Pedro Nunes, Hedwig van Delden, Roel Vanhout and Luuk Fleskens
Additional contact information
Jantiene E. M. Baartman: Soil Physics and Land Management Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Joao Pedro Nunes: Soil Physics and Land Management Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Hedwig van Delden: Research Institute for Knowledge Systems, P.O. Box 463, 6200 AL Maastricht, The Netherlands
Roel Vanhout: Research Institute for Knowledge Systems, P.O. Box 463, 6200 AL Maastricht, The Netherlands
Luuk Fleskens: Soil Physics and Land Management Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-28

Abstract: Healthy soils are fundamental for sustainable agriculture. Soil Improving Cropping Systems (SICS) aim to make land use and food production more sustainable. To evaluate the effect of SICS at EU scale, a modelling approach was taken. This study simulated the effects of SICS on two principal indicators of soil health (Soil Organic Carbon stocks) and land degradation (soil erosion) across Europe using the spatially explicit PESERA model. Four scenarios with varying levels and combinations of cover crops, mulching, soil compaction alleviation and minimum tillage were implemented and simulated until 2050. Results showed that while in the scenario without SICS, erosion slightly increased on average across Europe, it significantly decreased in the scenario with the highest level of SICS applied, especially in the cropping areas in the central European Loess Belt. Regarding SOC stocks, the simulations show a substantial decrease for the scenario without SICS and a slight overall decrease for the medium level scenario and the scenario with a mix of high, medium and no SICS. The scenario with a high level of SICS implementation showed an overall increase in SOC stocks across Europe. Potential future improvements include incorporating dynamic land use, climate change and an optimal spatial allocation of SICS.

Keywords: large-scale modelling; Europe; soil health; SOC stocks; soil erosion; scenarios; sustainable soil management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/6/943/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/6/943/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:6:p:943-:d:842495

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().