Agrosphärenkolloquium - Using greenhouse gas measurements to inform the development of climate-smartagroecosystems - Prof. Ana Meijide

Climate-smart agriculture aims at sustainably increasing the productivity of agroecosystems and its resilience to climate change, while mitigating its climatic impact. Agricultural soils have the capacity to store large amounts of carbon, and therefore, they can be a great tool for climate change mitigation. However, due to different management practices, agricultural systems can also be sources of greenhouse gases. Hence, understanding under which conditions agroecosystems can sequester carbon in the soil and the mechanisms responsible for greenhouse gas production and consumption is of great relevance to develop climate-smart mitigation strategies. To understand these mechanisms, it is first necessary to quantifying carbon and greenhouse gas fluxes under different climatic conditions, management practices and soil types.

I will present different studies where we measured greenhouse gas fluxes from agroecosystems under temperate, Mediterranean and tropical climatic conditions. We will also explore the trade-offs between management practices aiming at soil organic carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions, under current or future climatic conditions, and show how greenhouse gas measurements should be the basis for developing informed climate-smart agricultural management strategies.