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Heide Spiegel1, Andreas Baumgarten1,

Andreas Bohner2, Robert Jandl3, Ina Meyer4, Sigbert Huber5,

Sophie Zechmeister-Boltenstern6, Taru Sandén1

Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Department for Soil Health and Plant Nutrition

POTENTIAL, LIMITS AND

MANAGEMENT OPTIONS FOR CARBON

SEQUESTRATION IN AUSTRIAN SOILS

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1 2 3 4 65

Role of the soil within climate change

Soil as a source

• Source of CO2 (land use change, tillage)

• Source of nitrous oxide, ammonia - inefficient use of nitrogen

Soil as a sink

• SOC sequestration

• Sustainable soil management

Soil as "concerned“, e.g.

• Soil erosion

• Soil biodiversity

• Soil properties

• function fulfillment (LANDMARK project)

A wide range of topics

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• Evaluation of Austrian long-term experiments and monitoring data in arable land, grassland

and forest regarding carbon sequestration

• Development of a long-term 0,4%-Szenario until 2050 for Austria, including the involvement

of all stakeholders

• Economic assessment of the 4-per-mille land management scenario

• Evaluate impacts of the 4-per-mille initiative on selected Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs)

• Estimate SOC sequestration in unmanaged soils (e.g. soils above the forest line, wetlands,

which are non-target of 4-per-mille) compared to managed soils (target of 4-per-mille).

CASAS - CArbon Sequestration in Austrian SoilsStart: September 2019

Jandl, 2018

AGES LONG-TERM FIELD EXPERIMENTS

Trajanov, A. Spiegel, H.,

Debeljak, M., Sandén, T.

2018.

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Tillage experiment (Fuchsenbigl, Marchfeld) since 1988

Effects of different tillage systems

• conventional ploughing (CT), 25-30 cm

• reduced tillage (cultivator, RT), ca. 15 cm

• minimum tillage (rotary driller, MT), 5-8 cm

on

chemical, physical and microbial soil parameters (Kandeler et al., 1999; Spiegel et al., 2002 and 2007, Tatzber et al., 2007, 2008, 2009; Franko, Spiegel 2016)

yields and quality of crops

9 plots, size 60x12m /720 m²; 3 replicates, randomised block design

Soil: Haplic Chernozem (WRB, 2015)

SOC concentrations (0-10cm, 20-30 cm) Tillage experiment (Fuchsenbigl, Marchfeld)

a MT

b RTb CT

CT

MT

RT

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SOC stocks (0-30 cm) Tillage experiment (Fuchsenbigl, Marchfeld)

MT

RT

CTa

a

b

Effects of long term (different P-

fertilisation and) incorporation/removal

of crop residues on

dynamics of SOM

on two different sites (Marchfeld and

Alpenvorland)

32 plots, size 30x7.5 m / 225m²;

8 variants, 4 replicates, 2x(4x4) latin

square

Crop residue management since 1982/1986

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SOC

Alpenvorland Marchfeld

crop residue removal/incorporation

Treatments:

• control ( 0 kg N )

• mineral N fertilizer (40 – 80 – 120 kg N)

• compost (175 kg N ha-1)

• bio waste compost (OWC)

• green waste compost (GWC)

• manure compost (MC)

• sewage sludge compost (SSC)

• compost (175 kg N + 80 kg mineral N)

64 plots, size 5x6 m /30 m²; 4 replicates, randomised block design

Crop rotation: w. barley - maize – pea (without compost) –w.wheat

Soil: cambisol, loamy silt (17 % clay), pH (CaCl2) 6.9

Compost trial Upper Austria since 1991

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SOCCompost trial Upper Austria

a SSC

b GWC, OWCb FYMC

b 0,40 mineral N fertilisation

SOC highest after

• organic fertilisation (e.g. FYM, compost)

• incorporation of crop residues

• reduction of tillage (depth and frequency)

SOC: maintenance at most of the investigated sites possible, if

• tillage is reduced to a minimum

• crop residues (cereal grain straw, maize stover, sugar beet leaves) remain on the field, organic fertilisation

• continuation improved management practices necessary!

Plant cover as long as possible: arable crops followed by cover crops or

legume forage plants

SOC sequestration in arable fields?

GHG emissions?

Conclusions

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Long-term field experiments: indispensable to quantify the effects of different

agricultural management (e.g. tillage, fertilisation, management of crop

residues, crop rotation) on soil and crop parameters – soil quality/soil

fertility/soil health

Beyond CO2 storage – SOC increasing agricultural practices: sustainable

management

4-per-mille initiative - soil awareness-raising

Take home messages

AGES – Austrian Agency for Health & Food Safety

www.ages.at

Heide Spiegel, PhD

Senior Scientist

Spargelfeldstraße 191

1220 Vienna Austria

adelheid.spiegel@ages.at