the new global soil erosion assessment: a contribution to quantify erosion effect on global carbon...
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The new global soil erosion assessment: a contribution to quantify erosion effect on
global carbon budget
Borrelli, Robinson, Fleischer, Lugato, Alewell, Meusburger, Modugno, Ballabio, Schütt, Van Oost, Montanarella & Panagos
Joint Research Centre (JRC) & University of Basel
Soil: Source of Life
• Humans produce more than 95% of their food on soils
• Soils play a crucial role in ecosystem functioning
• Soils are incredibly biodiverse habitats
• It is the third largest global store of carbon
Soil: A Threatened Resource
The European Union thematic strategy for Soil Protection (COM 2006. 231) has identified eight main threats to soils:
EROSION ORGANIC MATTER LOSS BIODIVERSITY LOSS
COMPACTION SALINISATION FLOODS-LANDSLIDES SEALING
CONTAMINATION EROSION
Panagos , Borrelli , Robinson , 2015. Nature, 526
Soil erosion: A geomorphic process that detaches and removes the top layer of soil from its primary location.
Status of the World’s Soil Resources Report
The Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils has completed the first State of the World’s Soil Resources Report.
Globally soil erosion was identified as the gravest threat, leading to deteriorating water quality in developed regions, lowering of crop yields in many developing regions.
The quality of soil information for policy formulation must be improved – the regional assessments in the State of the World’s Soil Resources Report frequently base their evaluations on studies from the 1990s based on observations made in the 1980s or earlier.
FAO, Bizzarri
Montanarella et al., 2016. Soil, 2
“…the most likely range of global soil erosion by water is 20–30 Pg yr-1”
World’s Soil Resources Report: Soil Erosion
“Over the last decade, the figures published for water erosion range over an order of magnitude of ca. 20 Pg yr-1
(billion tones) to over 200 Pg yr-1
Montanarella et al., 2016. Soil, 2
Human-induced Soil Degradation
Need of New Spatially Explicit Information
Given the limited information on patterns of land use and land use changes in the 1990s the GLASOD approach is an important step today’s technological advances can build upon.
- 15 times more literature than 1980
- Quasi-daily satellite information
- Digital resources
- Computation capacity
MODIS satellite
Quo vadis soil erosion? Global impacts of 21st century land use change
Land use / land cover assessment Soil erosion modelling
New Global Assessment of Soil Erosion
Borrelli et al. submitted, 2017
Land detail
Spatial resolution
GLADIS = 10 km
New Global Assessment of Soil Erosion
Borrelli et al. submitted, 2017
Borrelli et al. 2017 (250m)
1600 cells
Beyond previous static observation approach
- Period 1: 2001- Period 2: 2012
Enhanced representation of land use- FAOSTAT data- Conservation agriculture
Land detail
Human pressure
New Global Assessment of Soil Erosion
Borrelli et al. submitted, 2017
Land detail
Human pressure
Natural drivers
Advanced description of:- Rainfall patterns- Soil properties- Topography
Panagos et al. 2017
New Global Assessment of Soil Erosion
Borrelli et al. submitted, 2017
Land detail
Human pressure
Multidisciplinary Discussions- Geographical aspects- GDP relationships - Phosphorus- Soil organic carbon- Economic effects and costs- Policy implications
Natural drivers
New Global Assessment of Soil Erosion
Borrelli et al. submitted, 2017
Multi-disciplinary
Results• Modelled area: ca. 84.1% of the Earth’s land• 202 countries• 35 Pg yr-1 of soil eroded in 2001• In 2012, 35.9 Pg yr-1 (due to land use)• Cropland Pg yr-1
• Gross SOC displacement by water erosion of ca. 2.5 Pg C yr-1
Borrelli et al. submitted, 2017
Conclusions
- Nutrient resources
- Cost of soil erosion
- Supporting policy decision-making
- Global soil organic carbon
We obtained quantitative, robust estimates of soil erosion at the global scale by means of an unprecedented high-resolution spatially distributed RUSLE-based modelling approach.
This new insights can have implications on:
