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European agriculture is vulnerable to weather extremes. Nevertheless, by choosing well how to manage their land, farmers can protect themselves against drought and peak rains. More than a thousand observations across Europe show that it is important to keep the soil covered with living plants, even in winter. A focus on a general reduction of traffic on agricultural land is more important than reducing tillage. Organic material needs to remain or be added on the field as much as possible.

Our results showed that at landscape level SOC stock variability was mainly explained by clay content. We found significant linear positive relationships between VC and SOC stocks for the land uses annual croplands, perennial croplands, grasslands and bushlands without soil depth restrictions until 110 cm. We concluded that in the forest-savanna transition zone, soil properties and topography determine land use, which in turn affects the stocks of SOC and TN and to some extent the VC stocks.

This study shows how an optimized cropping system including no-tillage, cover crops and organic amendments is able to store up to 10 % more water for the crop than conventional management for rainfed cereal cropping in a semi-arid Mediterranean area in Navarre (Spain).

Most agricultural soils erode faster than new soil is formed, which leads to soil thinning. Here we used a model simulation to investigate how soil erosion and soil thinning can alter topsoil properties and change its susceptibility to erosion. We found that soil profiles are sensitive to erosion-induced changes in the soil system, which can both accelerate and slow down soil thinning. These findings are likely to impact how we estimate soil lifespans and simulate long-term erosion dynamics.

Historically, many peatlands in the boreal region have been drained for timber production. Given the prospects of a drier future due to climate change, wetland restorations are now increasing. Better maps hold the key to insights into restoration targets and land-use management policies, and maps are often the no 1 decision-support tool. Here we use an AI developed soil moisture map based on laser scanning data to illustrate how the mapping of peatlands can be improved across an entire nation.

Major soil carbon pools and fluxes were assessed along a climatic gradient expanding 4 °C in (MAT) for two important boreal conifer forest stand types; Species and climate affected soil organic matter (SOM) cycling but not stocks. Contrarily to common hypotheses, SOM lability was not reduced by warmer climatic conditions and perhaps increased. Results apply to cold and wet conditions and a stable vegetation composition along the climate gradient.

The potential to reverse the negative effects caused in the tosoil by inversion tillage, using alternative agricultural practices was evaluated. Reduced and no-tillage, and additions of manure/compost, improved the topsoil structure and the OC content. Residues retention had a positive impact on structure. We concluded that the negative effects of inversion tillage can be mitigated by reducing the tillage intensity or by adding organic materials, optimally combined with non-inversion tillage.