13 Sep

Online

Webinar: The potential to increase soil carbon in European agriculture using multifunctional production systems

seminars, workshops |

This webinar is about large-scale deployment of grass in crop rotations as a multifunctional climate mitigation strategy. Oskar Englund, Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering at the Mid Sweden University will present a study in which Ioannis Dimitriou at the Department of Crop Production Ecology is involved.

Emerging EU policies create incentives for cultivation of perennial plants that provide biomass along with environmental benefits. One such option, common in northern Europe, is to include grass in rotations with annual crops to provide biomass while remediating soil organic carbon (SOC) losses and other environmental impacts. 

This webinar will present the findings from a recent study in which a spatially explicit model was applied on >81,000 sub-watersheds in EU27 + UK (Europe) to explore the effects of widespread deployment of such systems.

The model identifies and quantifies suitable areas for increased grass cultivation and corresponding biomass, protein supply, SOC sequestration, and reductions in nitrogen emissions to water (as well as wind and water erosion). The model also provides information about possible flood mitigation.

Read more about the study in the article "Large-scale deployment of grass in crop rotations as a multifunctional climate mitigation strategy".


Contact

Ioannis Dimitriou
Senior Research Advisor, SLU Global
Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Crop Production Ecology
ioannis.dimitriou@slu.se +46 (0)18 672553, +46 (0)702474583