5. Conclusions
The indicator n-potential enabled us, firstly, to classify soils of
the European regions according to their potential quality (i.e. the
hypothetical presence of NCC) and then, to select the most suitable
SOC management practices by comparing the n-potential values to
soil texture and the relative SOC. Our findings show that soils
within European regions have room for improvement in terms of
their quality and their capacity to store organic carbon. In
particular, the unstable soils of Southern Europe have a great
potential to store C, while moving towards the Northern regions of
Europe, soils are more stable but with a very limited capacity to
store additional C. However, from South to North Europe much
must be done in identifying those management practices that,
respecting the varied nature of the European soils, can contribute
towards the improvement and the maintenance of soil quality by
reducing soil disturbance and/or enhancing C inputs.
We conclude that information provided by n-potential may lead
towards the implementation of targeted policy measures, instead
of blanket measures, by enriching the policy development
processes with a clear and greater understanding of the physical
consequences on soils (of different types) due to the implementa-tion of SOC management practices. This greater knowledge and
understanding can greatly help farmers to select, within the
targeted measures, the most appropriate SOC management
practices for their own soils. To this end, farmers must integrate
the indications provided by the n-potential with information that
goes beyond soil dynamics alone, such as the existing cropping
systems, the compatibility of crops to the new practices and soil
types, the available technology and particularly the economic
feasibility, which heavily affects final farmers’ choices. Further
research is desirable, to explore such agronomic and economic
aspects in order to design a complete knowledge-base on SOC
management practices, for selecting the most effective practices to
improve soil stability and the capacity of soils to store organic
carbon.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank all participants to the SmartSOIL project for
their inspiring inputs and debates and for having shared their
valuable expertise, contributing to the success of this project.
Furthermore, we are grateful to the financial support from the 7th
Framework Programme of the European Union (Call identifier:
FP7-KBBE-2011-5; project number: 289694)