TY - JOUR A1 - Paul, Carsten A1 - Bartkowski, Bartosz A1 - Dönmez, Cenk A1 - Don, Axel A1 - Mayer, Stefanie A1 - Steffens, Markus A1 - Weigl, Sebastian A1 - Wiesmeier, Martin A1 - Wolf, André A1 - Helming, Katharina T1 - Carbon farming: Are soil carbon certificates a suitable tool for climate change mitigation? JF - Journal of Environmental Management N2 - Increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in agricultural soils removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and contributes towards achieving carbon neutrality. For farmers, higher SOC levels have multiple benefits, including increased soil fertility and resilience against drought-related yield losses. However, increasing SOC levels requires agricultural management changes that are associated with costs. Private soil carbon certificates could compensate for these costs. In these schemes, farmers register their fields with commercial certificate providers who certify SOC increases. Certificates are then sold as voluntary emission offsets on the carbon market. In this paper, we assess the suitability of these certificates as an instrument for climate change mitigation. From a soils' perspective, we address processes of SOC enrichment, their potentials and limits, and options for cost-effective measurement and monitoring. From a farmers’ perspective, we assess management options likely to increase SOC, and discuss their synergies and trade-offs with economic, environmental and social targets. From a governance perspective, we address requirements to guarantee additionality and permanence while preventing leakage effects. Furthermore, we address questions of legitimacy and accountability. While increasing SOC is a cornerstone for more sustainable cropping systems, private carbon certificates fall short of expectations for climate change mitigation as permanence of SOC sequestration cannot be guaranteed. Governance challenges include lack of long-term monitoring, problems to ensure additionality, problems to safeguard against leakage effects, and lack of long-term accountability if stored SOC is re-emitted. We conclude that soil-based private carbon certificates are unlikely to deliver the emission offset attributed to them and that their benefit for climate change mitigation is uncertain. Additional research is needed to develop standards for SOC change metrics and monitoring, and to better understand the impact of short term, non-permanent carbon removals on peaks in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and on the probability of exceeding climatic tipping points. KW - Carbon sequestration KW - Emission offset KW - CDR KW - Permanence KW - Agriculture KW - Private governance Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-8140 SN - 0301-4797 IS - 330 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Techen, Anja-K. A1 - Helming, Katharina A1 - Brüggemann, Nicolas A1 - Veldkamp, Edzo A1 - Reinhold-Hurek, Barbara A1 - Lorenz, Marco A1 - Bartke, Stephan A1 - Heinrich, Uwe A1 - Amelung, Wulf A1 - Augustin, Katja A1 - Boy, Jens A1 - Corre, Marife A1 - Duttman, Rainer A1 - Gebbers, Robin A1 - Gentsch, Norman A1 - Grosch, Rita A1 - Guggenberger, Georg A1 - Kern, Jürgen A1 - Kiese, Ralf A1 - Kuhwald, Michael A1 - Leinweber, Peter A1 - Schloter, Michael A1 - Wiesmeier, Martin A1 - Winkelmann, Traud A1 - Vogel, Hans-Jörg ED - Sparks, Donald L. T1 - Chapter Four - Soil research challenges in response to emerging agricultural soil management practices T2 - Advances in Agronomy N2 - Agricultural management is a key force affecting soil processes and functions. Triggered by biophysical constraints as well as rapid structural and technological developments, new management practices are emerging with largely unknown impacts on soil processes and functions. This impedes assessments of the potential of such emerging practices for sustainable intensification, a paradigm coined to address the growing demand for food and nonfood products. In terms of soil management, sustainable intensification means that soil productivity is increased while other soil functions and services, such as carbon storage and habitat for organisms, are simultaneously maintained or even improved. In this paper we provide an overview of research challenges to better understand how emerging soil management practices affect soil processes and functions. We distinguish four categories of soil management practices: spatial arrangements of cropping systems, crops and rotations, mechanical pressures, and inputs into the soil. Key research needs identified for each include nutrient efficiency in agroforestry versus conventional cropping systems, soil-rhizosphere microbiome elucidation to understand the interacting roles of crops and rotations, the effects of soil compaction on soil–plant–atmosphere interactions, and the ecotoxicity of plastics, pharmaceuticals and other pollutants that are introduced into the soil. We establish an interdisciplinary, systemic approach to soil science and include cross-cutting research activities related to process modeling, data management, stakeholder interaction, sustainability assessment and governance. The identification of soil research challenges from the perspective of agricultural management facilitates cooperation between different scientific disciplines in the field of sustainable agricultural production. KW - Soil functions KW - Agricultural management KW - Future KW - Research challenges Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.agron.2020.01.002 SN - 0065-2113 IS - 161 SP - 179 EP - 240 PB - Elsevier ER -