The aboveground forest biomass plays a key role in the global carbon cycle and is considered a large and constant carbon reservoir. Hence, exploring the future potential changes in forest-cover pattern can help to estimate the trend of forest biomass and therefore, carbon stock in a certain area. As a result, the present paper attempts to model the potential changes in aboveground forest carbon stock based on the forest-cover pattern scenario simulated for 2050. Specifically, the resulting aboveground forest biomass, estimated for 2015 using the allometric equation based on diameter at breast height and the estimated forest density, was used as baseline data in the present approach. These spatial data were integrated into the forest-cover pattern scenario, predicted by using a spatially explicit model, i.e., the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small regional extent (CLUE-S), in order to estimate the potential variation of aboveground forest carbon stock. Our results suggest an overall increase by approximately 4% in the aboveground forest carbon stock until 2050 in Romania. However, important differences in the forest-cover pattern change were predicted on the regional scale, thus highlighting that the rates of carbon accumulation will change significantly in large areas. This study may increase the knowledge of aboveground forest biomass and the future trend of carbon stock in the European countries. Furthermore, due to their predictive character, the results may provide a background for further studies, in order to investigate the potential ecological, socio-economic and forest management responses to the changes in the aboveground forest carbon stock. However, in view of the uncertainties associated with the data accuracy and methodology used, it is presumed that the results include several spatial errors related to the estimation of aboveground forest biomass and simulation of future forest-cover pattern change and therefore, represent an uncertainty for the practical management of applications and decisions.

Following the pre-accession to the European Union (EU), significant changes have taken place in the agricultural policy and practice in Romania, with implications in the productivity and management of the agricultural landscape. After the EU-accession, the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provided support for both rural development and sustainable agriculture. At the same time, the increasing demand of consumers for high quality products on the one hand, and the need to protect and improve the quality of the environment as a result of organic land management practices, on the other, provided the perfect frame for the development of organic farming. The current study aims at providing an insight into the organic agriculture in Romania, with a special focus on the southern part of Romania (Romanian Plain and Dobrogea Plateau), an area which enjoys favourable natural conditions for this type of sustainable agriculture. The key findings of the paper are the identification of the linkages between EU/national policies and organic farming; building up a large geodatabase and providing spatial and statistical assessments of up-to-date records on organic farming based on data provided by the National Institute of Statistics, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the EUROSTAT statistics and reports, as well as by the inspection and certification bodies. Based on the data gathered from the 720 organic operators at LAU 2 level in southern Romania, various indicators (e.g. cultivated area with different crops, organic farms by size class of agricultural area used, number of organic operators) were computed and represented spatially using GIS techniques.