High Nature Value Farmland: Assessment of Soil Organic Carbon in Europe

Ciro Gardi,Antonio Bodini,Giovanna Visioli,Cristina Menta,Federica D Conti,Marco Scotti

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2016.00047

Abstract

High Nature Value Farmland (HNVF) is commonly associated with low intensity agricultural systems. HNVFs cover approximately 32% of the agricultural land in Europe and are of strategic importance for the European Union policy since they are reservoirs of biodiversity and provide several ecosystem services. Carbon sequestration is an important service that can be supplied by HNVFs as addressed in this study. Considering soil carbon content as a proxy for soil carbon storage, we compare HNVFs with soils that undergo more conventional land management (nHNVFs) and study the consequences of diverse land uses and geographic regions as additional explanatory variables. The results of our research show that, at the European level, organic carbon content is higher in HNVF than in nHNVF. However, this difference is strongly affected by the type of land use and the geographic region. Rather than seeing HNVF and nHNVF as two sharply distinct categories, as for carbon storage potential, we provide indications that the interplay between soil type (HNVF or nHNVF), land use and geographic region determines carbon content in soils.

Highlights

The level of organic carbon in European soils significantly depends on whether the nature of management is High Nature Value Farmland (HNVF) or nHNVF, what crop type they host, and where they are located within the geographic subdivision we considered
A careful inspection of these outcomes reveals that soils in United Kingdom and Ireland (UKI) contain significantly more carbon than soils in the other regions
The HNVF concept introduced in the 1990s (Baldock et al, 1993; Beaufoy et al, 1994) was intended as an approach to differentiate the agricultural systems based on their contribution to nature conservation

Summary

Introduction

The term High Nature Value Farmland (HNVF) was introduced in the early 1990s (Baldock et al, 1993; Beaufoy et al, 1994) to underline the relationship between agriculture and biodiversity (Trisorio and Borlizzi, 2011). Andersen et al (2003, 2007) defined HNVFs as “those areas in Europe where agriculture is a major (usually the dominant) land use and where that agriculture supports, or is associated with, either a high species and habitat diversity or the presence of species of European conservation concern, or both.” HNVFs comprise small patches of semi-natural land covering the farmed landscape. Andersen et al (2003, 2007) defined HNVFs as “those areas in Europe where agriculture is a major (usually the dominant) land use and where that agriculture supports, or is associated with, either a high species and habitat diversity or the presence of species of European conservation concern, or both.”. According to Lomba et al (2014) landscapes of high value for nature conservation in Europe comprise: (1) farmlands under low intensity management, with a high proportion of associated semi-natural vegetation used as a forage or fodder resource; (2) farmlands characterized by low intensity management and mosaics of semi-natural and cultivated land; and (3) farmlands that provide habitat to one or more species that are rare either at the European or on a global scale. HNVF is envisaged as a way to maintain and improve biodiversity as well as to promote ecosystem restoration, bringing socio-economic benefits (Peneva et al, 2014)

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Conclusion