The EU is aiming at climate neutrality for the agriculture, land use and forestry sector as early as 2035. Food production is inevitably linked to greenhouse gas emissions, e.g. through fertilization. However, agriculture and forestry also have the ability to store carbon long-term in vegetation or soil. Depending on land use, between 50 and 100 tons of carbon are stored in one hectare of agricultural land. For the small-scale situation in South Tyrol, however, there are still no concrete numbers on the overall carbon stocks and their stability.

In a new project, carried out by Eurac research together with the Universities of Bolzano and Innsbruck, this gap shall now be closed. It involves collecting soil data already collected from past projects and making them comparable, and analyzing new samples where there are still gaps. At the same time, data from carbon flux measurements in South Tyrol will be analyzed to understand how stable carbon stocks are in agricultural land. The data will be extrapolated to South Tyrol considering morphology, land-use history and climate and made available in map form. The overall goal of this project is to understand the carbon stocks dynamics in agricultural soils in mountain regions and which measures are necessary to maintain or even increase them.