February 27, 2017
Agriculture in the Mediterranean basin is currently contributing to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and in the future is expected to be strongly affected by climate change. Increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) via soil organic matter (SOM) improvement is widely regarded as a way to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. Using as a case study the Mediterranean coastal area in Spain, which is regarded as one of the most intensively managed areas in Europe for orchards and horticultural cropping, we analyzed the potential for climate change mitigation of introducing different practices that are expected to increase SOC.
February 27, 2017
Increasing temperatures and changes in the intensity and frequency of precipitations may impact the ability of tropical high-elevation Andean ecosystems (Páramos) to store and retain carbon (C). We, therefore, examined how warming and fluctuations in soil moisture could influence soil CO2 emissions from heterotrophic respiration (RH, the result of microbial respiration), of two Páramos of contrasting climatic regimes within their area of distribution.
February 28, 2017
Quaternary records provide an opportunity to examine the nature of the vegetation and fire responses to rapid past climate changes comparable in velocity and magnitude to those expected in the 21st-century. The best documented examples of rapid climate change in the past are the warming events associated with the Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) cycles during the last glacial period, which were sufficiently large to have had a potential feedback through changes in albedo and greenhouse gas emissions on climate.
February 28, 2017
An integrated assessment of the potential of different management practices for mitigating specific components of the total GHG budget (N2O and CH4 emissions and C sequestration) of Mediterranean agrosystems was performed in this study. Their suitability regarding both yield and environmental (e.g. nitrate leaching and ammonia volatilization) sustainability, and regional barriers and opportunities for their implementation were also considered.