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Carbon sequestration potential from sustainable management of arable land in the EU

López I Losada, Raül LU orcid ; Brady, Mark V. LU orcid ; Wilhelmsson, Fredrik LU and Hedlund, Katarina LU orcid (2025) In Environmental Research Letters 20(12).
Abstract
Carbon sequestration in arable soils is gaining increasing attention in global policymaking initiatives for climate-change mitigation. Large-scale assessments of soil organic carbon development in arable land are affected by the scarcity of reliable time series of soil organic carbon monitoring data and often fail to replicate observed trends or appreciate any effects induced by changes in soil management.
This study quantifies C loss from contemporary soil management on specialist crop farms in the EU and the potential societal benefits from C sequestration potential and avoided C loss due to improved management. Our analysis is based on an evidence pool of 214 independent long-term time series of soil organic carbon measurements... (More)
Carbon sequestration in arable soils is gaining increasing attention in global policymaking initiatives for climate-change mitigation. Large-scale assessments of soil organic carbon development in arable land are affected by the scarcity of reliable time series of soil organic carbon monitoring data and often fail to replicate observed trends or appreciate any effects induced by changes in soil management.
This study quantifies C loss from contemporary soil management on specialist crop farms in the EU and the potential societal benefits from C sequestration potential and avoided C loss due to improved management. Our analysis is based on an evidence pool of 214 independent long-term time series of soil organic carbon measurements spanning a wide range of climatic conditions and soil types, and considers the implementation of reduced tillage, organic amendments, soil cover during winter, and crop rotations.
Overall, we estimate the potential for C sequestration from improved soil management on specialist crop farms, representing 40 % of all the arable land in the EU, to be 48 (±15) million tonnes CO2 equivalents yearly, which corresponds to 17 % (±8) of the target for additional carbon removals in the soil and forest sinks under the Fit for 55 package. In addition, our results show high spatial variability in C losses due to current soil management practices and potential C sequestration from improvements. The annual climate-change mitigation value per unit of land with improved management shows a four-fold variation across countries, with Finland exhibiting the highest value and Cyprus the lowest. This demonstrates that a C payment eco-scheme should be adjusted spatially to achieve cost-effective soil organic carbon sequestration in arable soils in the EU. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Environmental Research Letters
volume
20
issue
12
article number
124038
publisher
IOP Publishing
ISSN
1748-9326
DOI
10.1088/1748-9326/ae2140
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f4e86136-7f76-4223-9f73-145c2954c85b
date added to LUP
2026-02-26 15:06:28
date last changed
2026-03-03 03:18:07
@article{f4e86136-7f76-4223-9f73-145c2954c85b,
  abstract     = {{Carbon sequestration in arable soils is gaining increasing attention in global policymaking initiatives for climate-change mitigation. Large-scale assessments of soil organic carbon development in arable land are affected by the scarcity of reliable time series of soil organic carbon monitoring data and often fail to replicate observed trends or appreciate any effects induced by changes in soil management.
This study quantifies C loss from contemporary soil management on specialist crop farms in the EU and the potential societal benefits from C sequestration potential and avoided C loss due to improved management. Our analysis is based on an evidence pool of 214 independent long-term time series of soil organic carbon measurements spanning a wide range of climatic conditions and soil types, and considers the implementation of reduced tillage, organic amendments, soil cover during winter, and crop rotations.
Overall, we estimate the potential for C sequestration from improved soil management on specialist crop farms, representing 40 % of all the arable land in the EU, to be 48 (±15) million tonnes CO2 equivalents yearly, which corresponds to 17 % (±8) of the target for additional carbon removals in the soil and forest sinks under the Fit for 55 package. In addition, our results show high spatial variability in C losses due to current soil management practices and potential C sequestration from improvements. The annual climate-change mitigation value per unit of land with improved management shows a four-fold variation across countries, with Finland exhibiting the highest value and Cyprus the lowest. This demonstrates that a C payment eco-scheme should be adjusted spatially to achieve cost-effective soil organic carbon sequestration in arable soils in the EU.}},
  author       = {{López I Losada, Raül and Brady, Mark V. and Wilhelmsson, Fredrik and Hedlund, Katarina}},
  issn         = {{1748-9326}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  publisher    = {{IOP Publishing}},
  series       = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
  title        = {{Carbon sequestration potential from sustainable management of arable land in the EU}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae2140}},
  doi          = {{10.1088/1748-9326/ae2140}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}