soil management

The present and future of soil conservation in Europe

Layla M. San-Emeterio and Olga Vindušková February 12, 2020

European agricultural soils are degraded and facing several threats. The EU´s Common Agricultural Policy is a potentially powerful tool for soil conservation. Scientific community now calls on the EU to take advantage of it.

Soil is a fragile and finite natural resource that must be carefully managed and protected to ensure future food and fiber provision as well as delivery of many other ecosystem services such as water purification or flood regulation [1]. Soil health and preservation at global scales has been receiving increasing attention, for example, in discussions at the 2019 UN climate conference, COP25 in Mad ...[Read More]

(Sicilian farmers look) Back to the future

Antonio Jordán August 30, 2016

Wheatfield with Crows, by Van Gogh. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Sicilian farmers are returning to cultivate ancient seed. This is to recover the ancient wisdom that feed the island and Italy since ancient times. Giuseppe Li Rosi is a local farmer and one of the strongest supporters of the return to traditional agriculture. He has converted a property of 100 hectares to traditional farming and proudly guards three local seed varieties (“Timilia”, “Maiorca” and ...[Read More]

Connectivity: an emerging issue

Antonio Jordán February 15, 2015

Antonio Jordán (University of Seville, Spain) Paulo Pereira (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania) Saskia Keesstra (Wageningen University, The Netherlands) Artemi Cerdà (University of Valencia, Spain) What is connectivity? Over the recent decades, a growing number of studies have highlighted the role of hydrological and sediment connectivity processes in relation to watershed management, t ...[Read More]

Monday paper: Managing soil nitrate with cover crops and buffer strips in Sicilian vineyards

Antonio Jordán December 23, 2013

A. Novara, L. Gristina, F. Guaitoli, A. Santoro, A. Cerdà. 2013. Managing soil nitrate with cover crops and buffer strips in Sicilian vineyards. Solid Earth, 4, 255-262, doi:10.5194/se-4-255-2013 Abstract When soil nitrate levels are low, plants suffer nitrogen (N) deficiency but when the levels are excessive, soil nitrates can pollute surface and subsurface waters. Strategies to reduce the nitrat ...[Read More]