Most trade-offs have to do with climate regulation. It is still uncertain under which conditions the synergies or trade-offs of carbon sequestration prevail. The EJP SOIL project TRACE-Soils is generating applicable mitigation strategies and indicators.

Across a broad range of climatic and soil conditions, TRACE Soils addresses the following research areas:

• Look at existing knowledge on how management practices shift soil structure and soil biota, and determine the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), as well as the losses in nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P).  
• Analyse how trade-offs and synergies link to structural and biological factors in long-term experiments.
• Scale-up trade-off analysis to the provincial level in Europe by using modelling scenarios. The results will be used to propose a ranked list of climate-zone specific indicators and measures to assess and mitigate the trade-offs of C sequestration.

• Under what conditions will carbon sequestration benefit agroecosystem services?

We will identify soil abiotic and biotic predictors of trade-off magnitudes, and test them in long-term experiments across a NE-SW pedoclimatic gradient in Europe. Modelling scenarios will be posed to scale-up trade-off analysis to the provincial level.

Outputs of reviews, experiments and models will serve to propose a ranked list of climate-zone specific indicators and measures to assess and mitigate trade-offs.