• Energy Research
• 15. Life on land close
• 6. Clean water close
• GB close
• DE close
• EU close

Abstract. Regional land carbon budgets provide insights on the spatial distribution of the land uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and can be used to evaluate carbon cycle models and to define baselines for land-based additional mitigation efforts. The scientific community has been involved in providing observation-based estimates of regional carbon budgets either by downscaling atmospheric CO2 observations into surface fluxes with atmospheric inversions, by using inventories of carbon stock changes in terrestrial ecosystems, by upscaling local field observations such as flux towers with gridded climate and remote sensing fields or by integrating data-driven or process-oriented terrestrial carbon cycle models. The first coordinated attempt to collect regional carbon budgets for nine regions covering the entire globe in the RECCAP-1 project has delivered estimates for the decade 2000–2009, but these budgets were not comparable between regions, due to different definitions and component fluxes reported or omitted. The recent recognition of lateral fluxes of carbon by human activities and rivers, that connect CO2 uptake in one area with its release in another also requires better definition and protocols to reach harmonized regional budgets that can be summed up to the globe and compared with the atmospheric CO2 growth rate and inversion results. In this study, for the international initiative RECCAP-2 coordinated by the Global Carbon Project, which aims as an update of regional carbon budgets over the last two decades based on observations, for 10 regions covering the globe, with a better harmonization that the precursor project, we provide recommendations for using atmospheric inversions results to match bottom-up carbon accounting and models, and we define the different component fluxes of the net land atmosphere carbon exchange that should be reported by each research group in charge of each region. Special attention is given to lateral fluxes, inland water fluxes and land use fluxes.

The ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project (Fragility and sustainability in small island environments: adaptation, cultural change and collapse in prehistory, 2013–18), led by Caroline Malone (Queens University Belfast) has explored issues of environmental fragility and Neolithic social resilience and sustainability during the Holocene period in the Maltese Islands. This, the first volume of three, presents the palaeo-environmental story of early Maltese landscapes. The project employed a programme of high-resolution chronological and stratigraphic investigations of the valley systems on Malta and Gozo. Buried deposits extracted through coring and geoarchaeological study yielded rich and chronologically controlled data that allow an important new understanding of environmental change in the islands. The study combined AMS radiocarbon and OSL chronologies with detailed palynological, molluscan and geoarchaeological analyses. These enable environmental reconstruction of prehistoric landscapes and the changing resources exploited by the islanders between the seventh and second millennia bc. The interdisciplinary studies combined with excavated economic and environmental materials from archaeological sites allows Temple landscapes to examine the dramatic and damaging impacts made by the first farming communities on the islands’ soil and resources. The project reveals the remarkable resilience of the soil-vegetational system of the island landscapes, as well as the adaptations made by Neolithic communities to harness their productivity, in the face of climatic change and inexorable soil erosion. Neolithic people evidently understood how to maintain soil fertility and cope with the inherently unstable changing landscapes of Malta. In contrast, second millennium bc Bronze Age societies failed to adapt effectively to the long-term aridifying trend so clearly highlighted in the soil and vegetation record. This failure led to severe and irreversible erosion and very different and short-lived socio-economic systems across the Maltese islands.

Vegetation surveys were carried out in four different study areas in the Sakha Republic, Russia: in the mountainous region of the Verkhoyansk Range within the Oymyakonsky and Tomponsky District (Event EN21-201 - EN21-219), and in three lowland regions of Central Yakutia within the Churapchinsky, Tattinsky and the Megino-Kangalassky District (Event EN21220 - EN21264). The study area is located within the boreal forest biome that is underlain by permafrost soils. The aim was to record the projective ground vegetation in different boreal forest types studied during the RU-Land_2021_Yakutia summer field campaign in August and September 2021.Ground vegetation was surveyed for different vegetation types within a circular forest plot of 15m radius. Depending on the heterogeneity of the forest plot, multiple vegetation types (VA, VB, or VC) were chosen for the survey. The assignment of a vegetation type is always unique to a site. Their cover on the circular forest plot was recorded in percent.In total, 84 vegetation types at 58 forest plots were assessed. All data were collected by scientists form the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) Germany, the University of Potsdam Germany, and the North-Easter Federal University of Yakutsk (NEFU) Russia.

Daily rainfall is measured as the total (mm) over the 24-hour period 0900 to 0900 GMT. It includes all precipitation - snow, rain, mist and fog. Rainfall was first recorded at Rothamsted in March 1853, using a copper funnel rain gauge (5 inch / 12.7 cm diameter) and measured using a graduated cylinder. Since 2004 it has been measured using an electronic tipping bucket rain gauge (10 inch / 25.4cm diameter), ARG100, calibrated to tip at 0.2mm (which has since become the minimum amount of rain that can be recorded). The rain gauge is placed within a 30cm deep 1.5m radius turf wall, retained by brick, to reduce wind eddies that may potentially blow rain out of the gauges. Data were collected daily manually until 2004 and since then by Automatic Weather Station using a standard protocol. There are differences in the capture rate between the two gauges, see Rainfall for further information. The monthly summary data contained in this spreadsheet are derived from daily data measured at Rothamsted Meteorological Station, Harpenden. Total monthly data is determined from daily data using Genstat 19th Edition. Verification includes checks for instrument errors, for missing data and outliers. The original raw daily data is available, after registering, from the e-RA database. Please contact the e-RA Curators for an access password and further details. This dataset represents the mean monthly rainfall recorded at Rothamsted from October 1985 - September 2017 and is derived from continuous daily records measured at the site. Location: Rothamsted Meteorological Station, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England 51.82 N 0.37 W 128 m asl.

Data was either measured in situ in the field (N2O flux, soil moisture, rainfall and air temperature) or samples were taken, processed, and analysed in the laboratory (soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), ammonium, nitrate, microbial community composition and crop yield). N2O flux data was measured on a mobile gas chromatograph (GC) system and integrated to obtain peak areas on Peak490Win10Canabis programme. The times, peak areas and sample ID were then exported into a .CHR file and imported into Flux.NET.3.3 which calculated N2O flux as an output in Excel which was exported as .csv file for deposit in EIDC. N2O flux was used to calculate cumulative N2O flux using trapezoidal integration in Excel and saved in a separate .csv file for deposit in EIDC. Soil moisture was measured on Accilmas with data stored as a .csv on a DataSnap that was downloaded and sorted by treatment and saved as a .csv file. Rainfall and air temperature were downloaded from the weather station as .csv file. Soil pH and EC were recorded manually into a notebook and input into an Excel spreadsheet and exported as a .csv file. Soil ammonium and nitrate content was measured using the microplate method using a programme called Gen5. Date was exported into an Excel spreadsheet and absorbance units used to calculate ammonium/nitrate content in milligrams per kilogram using a calibration curve from a set of standards in an Excel spreadsheet. This was exported as a .csv file. Crop growth data was recorded in the field in a notebook and input into an Excel spreadsheet and exported as a .csv file. Crop yield was recorded in a notebook and input into an Excel spreadsheet and exported as a .csv file. Microbial community composition was measured using 16S gene sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq. This generated raw sequencing reads which were processed using Python and filtered using QIIME v1.3.1. creating asv.count.table.csv of counts of each Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) per sample and taxa.table.csv of the taxonomic lineage for each ASVs. This dataset contains field data on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, microbial community composition, crop yield and growth and soil biochemical properties. The field trial consisted of three different treatments of control, conventional microplastic addition and biodegradable microplastic addition where winter barley was grown. The data presented are from field and laboratory measurements. Data was collected by the data authors. The field trial was carried out from September 2020 to July 2021 at Henfaes Field Centre, UK. Research was funded through NERC Grant NE/V005871/1. Do agricultural microplastics undermine food security and sustainable development in developing countries?

Integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) is a versatile technology emerging as an ecological and sustainable solution for traditional monoculture aquacultures in terms of effluent treatment. Nevertheless, IMTA is still poorly applied in aquaculture industry due to, among other reasons, the lack of effective, low-investment and low-maintenance solutions. In this study, one has developed a practical and low maintenance IMTA-pilot system, settled in a semi-intensive coastal aquaculture. The optimisation and performance of the system was validated using Ulva spp., a macroalgae that naturally grows in the fishponds of the local aquaculture. Several cultivation experiments were performed at lab-scale and in the IMTA-pilot system, in static mode. The specific growth rate (SGR), yield, nutrient removal, N and C enrichment, protein and pigment content were monitored. Ulva spp. successfully thrived in effluent from the fish species sea bream (Sparus aurata) and sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) production tanks and significantly reduced inorganic nutrient load in the effluent, particularly, NH4+, PO43− and NO3−. The enrichment of nitrogen in Ulva spp.’s tissues indicated nitrogen assimilation by the algae, though, the cultivated Ulva spp. showed lower amounts of protein and pigments in comparison to the wild type. This study indicates that the designed IMTA-pilot system is an efficient solution for fish effluent treatment and Ulva spp., a suitable effluent remediator.

Bioplastics are alternatives of conventional petroleum-based plastics. Bioplastics are polymers processed from renewable sources and are biodegradable. This study aims at conducting an environmental impact assessment of the bioprocessing of agricultural wastes into bioplastics compared to petro-plastics using an LCA approach. Bioplastics were produced from potato peels in laboratory. In a biochemical reaction under heating, starch was extracted from peels and glycerin, vinegar and water were added with a range of different ratios, which resulted in producing different samples of bio-based plastics. Nevertheless, the environmental impact of the bioplastics production process was evaluated and compared to petro-plastics. A life cycle analysis of bioplastics produced in laboratory and petro-plastics was conducted. The results are presented in the form of global warming potential, and other environmental impacts including acidification potential, eutrophication potential, freshwater ecotoxicity potential, human toxicity potential, and ozone layer depletion of producing bioplastics are compared to petro-plastics. The results show that the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, through the different experiments to produce bioplastics, range between 0.354 and 0.623 kg CO2 eq. per kg bioplastic compared to 2.37 kg CO2 eq. per kg polypropylene as a petro-plastic. The results also showed that there are no significant potential effects for the bioplastics produced from potato peels on different environmental impacts in comparison with poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid and polypropylene. Thus, the bioplastics produced from agricultural wastes can be manufactured in industrial scale to reduce the dependence on petroleum-based plastics. This in turn will mitigate GHG emissions and reduce the negative environmental impacts on climate change.