Project code: V4-1628
Project period: 1. 10. 2016 to 30. 9. 2019 (36 months)
Project financing: Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food in the context of the implementation of targeted research program "Securing your food for tomorrow" in 2016
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Project group: Agricultural Institute of Slovenia (AIS), Slovenian Forestry Institute (SFI), Biotechnical Faculty University of Ljubljana (BF), Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences University of Maribor
Project head: dr. Borut Vrščaj (KIS)
Researchers: Janez Bergant, Marjan Šinkovec, dr. Robert Leskovšek, dr. Primož Simončič, dr. Aleksander Marinšek, dr. Boštjan Mali, dr. Milan Kobal, dr. Mateja Muršec, mag. Vida Žnidaršič-Pongrac.
Background and issues: Soils are an important sink of carbon. At the same time it is the source of carbon mainly in the form of CO2, CH4 as well as other greenhouse gasses. Soil organic matter (SOM) is the ultimate indicator of the agricultural and forestry quality, environmentally important
characteristics and potentials of the soil to perform a wide variety of ecosystem functions. From this perspective, it is important to maintain and increase SOM levels in agricultural and forest soils of Slovenia for which it is necessary to provide a robust provable system of monitoring carbon stocks in soil. Furthermore, it is important to assess the contribution of agriculture and forestry to the emissions and sinks of CO2 and other GHG (CO2 eq.) of Slovenia and ensure the quality and
comparability of performance of SOM monitoring TOS and sustainable use of agricultural and forest soils.
The project includes design, testing and partial implementation of the system of monitoring of the SOM content as part of national reporting for the sector "Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF)", an important part of the national carbon balance.
The objectives of the project are:
• To collect SOM data and information and to develop an operational method for reporting of soil C emissions / sinks in agroforestry areas of Slovenia.
• To determine the initial state the SOM content in agricultural and forest soils.
• To create a spatial pattern of SOM monitoring in the form of a flexible network for the entire country and to determine the reference SOM monitoring sampling locations.
• To produce a comparative analysis of existing methods of sampling, SOM monitoring and reporting.
• To establish an efficient and rational methodology for extracting and processing SOM data.
• To establish a monitoring system of carbon stocks in the soil and to ensure quality control of data collected at all levels of monitoring; Sampling ¬ Analysis ¬ Database ¬ use of the data for the calculations for carbon balance / GHG reporting
• To develop INSPIRE compliant SOM databases for reporting on the SOM content, balance and for the contribution to the national C balance and GHG reporting.
Project results
Links:
Bibliography: V4-1628 SICRIS