engleski

Soil management in agricultural areas and ecosystem services.

Soils are the base of life yet are often overlooked in ecosystem services assessment. Soils provide and regulate an important number of services that sustain humanity and are related directly or indirectly to clean air and water, food production, and are fundamental for poverty reduction. Agricultural soils are subjected to intense degradation as a consequence of the type of management such as conventional tillage, short rotations, and livestock exploitation. These practices, which are focused on high economic returns, can result in long-term tradeoffs such as soil erosion, compaction, pollution, salinization, increase of greenhouse emissions, loss of habitat and biodiversity and water and nutrient losses. As a consequence of this unsustainable management, the capacity of soils to provide long-term services is seriously reduced. The use and abuse of herbicides and pesticides are responsible for soil biodiversity decrease, especially of ecosystem engineers such as earthworms and ants, crucial to soil functions. Unhealthy soils cannot provide enough ecosystem services in quantity and quality to increase food security. The damage that conventional agriculture is imposing on soils is unprecedented. In Europe, 12 million hectares of agricultural land are affected by severe erosion. This costs approximately 300 million Euros to the agricultural sector and implies a GDP loss of 155 million Euros (Panagos et al. 2018). A new approach is needed to manage soil resources and the quantity and quality of the services provided for future generations. Sustainable practices are crucial to reduce soil degradation caused by agriculture and to maintain soil biodiversity and functions. In this presentation we will discuss the major threats that lead to soil degradation and ecosystem services depletion and the best practices to maintain and increase soil functions and the provision of services, both in quality and quantity.

Soils ; Ecosystem Services ; Agriculture ; Sustainability

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