Research project The role of soil in climate mitigation and adaptation

General introduction

ARTEMIS is an internal research project of EJP SOIL, aimed at exploring the potential of soils in supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation. Soils provide a vast array of ecosystem services and are thus essential to sustaining our planet's health. However, the effectiveness of these services is largely influenced by land management practices. Through ARTEMIS, we seek to deepen our understanding of how specific agroecological practices impact soil ecosystem service indicators, and how these indicators can be accurately assessed in the field.

Research approach

ARTEMIS uses a three-pronged approach: literature review, direct exchange with people in the field, and evaluations of a large number of relevant field experiments. We use the field experiments for numerical modeling. In particular, we select agroecological systems that show high yield stability and resistance to climatic extremes at the local level. The modeling at the regional level should make it possible to compare different AE practices, pick out the best performers, and indicate the effect of different climate evolutions on crop production and soil indicators. We are conducting meta-analyses to quantify (on a European scale) the contribution of soil to ecosystem services relevant to climate mitigation and sustainable agricultural production. Finally, we are working on specific indicators for ecosystem services at farm level, in collaboration with stakeholders from regions with different soil and climate types. The latter supports the monitoring of soil indicators that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as improved soil health.

Relevance/Valorization

ARTEMIS provides a better understanding of the impact that a transition to more ecological systems has on soil functioning and ecosystem services. This is important for a more accurate assessment of the ability of European soils to withstand frequent weather extremes (e.g. prolonged drought and wet conditions). The project thus contains useful knowledge for the transition to more sustainable and climate-adaptive agricultural production.

Financing

EU Horizon2020