Climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soil is critical to improve soil health, enhance food and water security, contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity preservation, and improve human health and wellbeing. The European Joint Programme for Soil (EJP SOIL) started in 2020 with the aim to significantly improve soil management knowledge and create a sustainable and integrated European soil research system. EJP SOIL involves more than 350 scientists across 24 Countries and has been addressing multiple aspects associated with soil management across different European agroecosystems. This study summarizes the key findings of stakeholder consultations conducted at the national level across 20 countries with the aim to identify important barriers and challenges currently affecting soil knowledge but also assess opportunities to overcome these obstacles. Our findings demonstrate that there is significant room for improvement in terms of knowledge production, dissemination and adoption. Among the most important barriers identified by consulted stakeholders are technical, political, social and economic obstacles, which strongly limit the development and full exploitation of the outcomes of soil research. The main soil challenge across consulted member states remains to improve soil organic matter and peat soil conservation while soil water storage capacity is a key challenge in Southern Europe. Findings from this study clearly suggest that going forward climate-smart sustainable soil management will benefit from (1) increases in research funding, (2) the maintenance and valorisation of long-term (field) experiments, (3) the creation of knowledge sharing networks and interlinked national and European infrastructures, and (4) the development of regionally-tailored soil management strategies. All the above-mentioned interventions can contribute to the creation of healthy, resilient and sustainable soil ecosystems across Europe.

The study aimed to quantify the relationship between root parameters and soil macropore characteristics in two soil layers of Retisol from a hilly landscape in Western Lithuania, as influenced by different land use systems. The decreases in root volume and root length density were dependent on...

The key process in understanding carbon dynamics under different ecosystems is quantifying soil CO₂ efflux. However, this process can change annually as it depends on environmental variables. The results of this paper present the effects of root network, soil temperature, and volumetric water content on soil CO₂ efflux, which were investigated on Retisol of two types of land uses in Western Lithuania in 2017–2019: forest and grassland. It was determined that the average soil CO₂ efflux in the grassland was 32% higher than in the forest land. The CO₂ efflux, average across land uses, tended to increase in the following order: 2017 < 2018 < 2019. Dry weather conditions with high temperatures during the vegetation period governed the soil CO₂ efflux increase by 14%. Soil temperature (up to 20 °C) and volumetric water content (up to 23–25%) had a positive effect on the soil CO₂ efflux increase on Retisol. We established that the root’s activity plays one of the main roles in the CO₂ production rate—in both land uses, the soil CO₂ efflux was influenced by the root length density and the root volume.

Agricultural waste can have a catastrophic impact on climate change, as it contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if not managed sustainably. Swine-digestate-manure-derived biochar may be one sustainable way to manage waste and tackle GHG emissions in temperate climatic conditions. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how such biochar could be used to reduce soil GHG emissions. Spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and pea crops in 2020 and 2021, respectively, were treated with 25 t ha⁻¹ of swine-digestate-manure-derived biochar (B₁) and 120 kg ha⁻¹ (N₁) and 160 kg ha⁻¹ (N₂) of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (ammonium nitrate). Biochar with or without nitrogen fertilizer substantially lowered GHG emissions compared to the control treatment (without any treatment) or treatments without biochar application. Carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and methane (CH₄) emissions were directly measured using static chamber technology. Cumulative emissions and global warming potential (GWP) followed the same trend and were significantly lowered in biochar-treated soils. The influences of soil and environmental parameters on GHG emissions were, therefore, investigated. A positive correlation was found between both moisture and temperature and GHG emissions. Thus, biochar made from swine digestate manure may be an effective organic amendment to reduce GHG emissions and address climate change challenges.

In order to control the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, it is necessary to select the appropriate crop rotation and tillage intensity depending on the soil type and climatic conditions. However, their implementation in agricultural management methods has been insufficient until now. The main objective of this study was to investigate the changes and dependences in soil net CO₂ exchange rate (NCER) and main physico-chemical parameters under different tillage (conventional (CT) and no tillage (NT)) and crop rotation systems. Cropping systems significantly affected the amount of nutrients, but did not affect pH and organic carbon; otherwise, tillage vs. cropping systems had no significant effects on the soil chemical parameters analyzed. The data revealed that in NT treatments, the NCER was 28% higher than in CT. Different crop rotations also revealed a significant effect on NCER from the soil. Carbon dioxide fluxes increased in cropping systems where a higher share of catch crops were included. In NT systems, a comparatively higher soil moisture content was registered. In addition, the rotations with catch crops produced a higher (by 1–3%) soil moisture content. The temperature of the soil surface was not significantly affected by tillage or cropping systems; nevertheless, a trend towards higher soil surface temperatures in CT was determined, which might be affected by enhanced air circulation in the pores. Soil NCER increase correlated negatively with higher soil surface moisture content, while its relationship was positive with soil surface temperature increase. In general, soil surface temperature and moisture were the most significant factors in explaining the fluctuation in NCER from Cambisols in Lithuania under moderate climatic conditions.