Taru Sandén

• PhD
• Senior Expert at Österreichische Agentur für Gesundheit und Ernährungssicherheit

Over 60% of European soils are considered unhealthy, which clearly calls for a transformation towards sustainable soil management. Taking care of our soils is imperative, since they are key components of our ecosystems and provide up to 99% of our food. Agricultural long-term field experiments (LTEs) are key to understanding how different agroecolo...

The agroecological “Marchfeld” cluster assessed the impact of tillage on primary production (yield) and selected soil parameters at three sites (two conventionally and one organically managed) from 2018–2022. The data were uniformly compiled in a data set. The examined factors were no, minimum (5–8 cm), reduced (10–15 cm) and conventional (25–30 cm...

Conventional tillage, including ploughing after harvest and/or for seedbed preparation, aims to incorporate crop residues and weeds and to loosen, mix and aerate the soil. However, less beneficial effects, such as a loss of soil organic carbon (SOC), are also associated with intensive tillage. This has made reduced and minimum tillage systems witho...

Microbial respiration, growth, and turnover are driving processes in the formation and decomposition of soil organic matter. In contrast to respiration and growth, microbial turnover and death currently lack distinct methods to be determined. Here we propose a new approach to determine microbial death rates and to improve measurements of microbial...

Litter decomposition is an important factor affecting local and global C cycles. It is known that decomposition through soil microbial activity in ecosystems is mainly influenced by soil type and climatic conditions. However, for agroecosystems, there remains a need for a better understanding of how management practices influence litter decompositi...

Abstract Sustainable agricultural soil management practices are key to restore, maintain and improve soil health. The European Joint Programme for SOIL (EJP SOIL) has identified twelve main soil challenges in Europe. To assess the potential and eventually increase the adoption of soil-improving management practices, it is necessary to know (i) the...

The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large-scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial m...

The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large‐scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial m...

The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large-scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial m...

Up to 70% of the nitrogen (N) fertilizer applied to agricultural soils is lost through microbially mediated processes, such as nitrification. This can be counteracted by synthetic and biological compounds that inhibit nitrification. However, for many biological nitrification inhibitors (BNIs), the interaction with soil properties, nitrifier specifi...

In‐field soil spectroscopy represents a promising opportunity for fast soil analysis, allowing the prediction of several soil properties from one spectral reading representing one soil sample. This facilitates data acquisition from large amounts of samples through its rapidity and the absence of required chemical processing. This is of particular i...

Sustainable agricultural soil management practices are key to restore, maintain and improve soil health. The European Joint Programme for SOIL (EJP SOIL) has identified twelve main soil challenges in Europe. To assess the potential and eventually increase the adoption of soil‐improving management practices, it is necessary to know (i) the current l...

Zusammenfassung Die Technische Zusammenfassung des APCC-Sonderberichts ″Landnutzung und Klimawandel in Österreich″ umfasst die Kernbotschaften der Kapitel 1–9. In ihr sind die Hauptaussagen zu den sozioökonomischen und klimatischen Treibern der Landnutzungsänderungen, zu den Auswirkungen von Landnutzung und -bewirtschaftung auf den Klimawandel, zu...

Zusammenfassung Die vielfältigen Auswirkungen des Klimawandels führen in Österreich zu einem dringenden Anpassungsbedarf von menschlichen und natürlichen Systemen (APCC, 2014). Während Anpassung prinzipiell ein biologischer oder sozialer Entwicklungsprozess ist, sind jene Anpassungen an den Klimawandel effektiver, die proaktiv, geplant und voraussc...

Soils are key components of our ecosystems and provide 95%–99% of our food. This importance is reflected by an increase in participatory citizen science projects on soils. Citizen science is a participatory research method that actively involves and engages the public in scientific enquiry to generate new knowledge or understanding. Here, we review...

Microbial respiration, growth and turnover are driving processes in the formation and decomposition of soil organic matter. In contrast to respiration and growth, microbial turnover and death currently lack distinct methods to be determined. Here we propose a new approach to determine microbial death rates and to improve measurements of microbial g...

The European Commission has set targets for a reduction in nutrient losses by at least 50% and a reduction in fertiliser use by at least 20% by 2030 while ensuring no deterioration in soil fertility. Within the mandate of the European Joint Programme EJP Soil ‘Towards climate‐smart sustainable management of agricultural soils’, the objective of thi...

Mid‐term (MTEs, 5 to 20 years) and long‐term (LTEs, 20+ years) field experiments are key sources of information to design future climate‐smart agriculture. Within the European Joint Program SOIL (EJP SOIL), we built the EJP SOIL‐MTE/LTE metadataset that contains metadata from 240 MTEs/LTEs across Europe. Metadata collected included precise descript...

Litter decomposition is an important factor affecting local and global C cycles. It is known that decomposition through soil microbial activity in ecosystems is mainly influenced by soil type and climatic conditions. However, for agroecosystems, there remains a need for a better understanding how management practices influence litter decomposition....

We believe that correcting for leaching in (terrestrial) litterbags studies such as the Tea Bag Index will result in more uncertainties than it resolves. This is mainly because leaching occurs in pulses upon changes in the environment and because leached material can still be mineralized after leaching. Furthermore, amount of material that potentia...

Unlabelled: In temperate, boreal and arctic soil systems, microbial biomass often increases during winter and decreases again in spring. This build-up and release of microbial carbon could potentially lead to a stabilization of soil carbon during winter times. Whether this increase is caused by changes in microbial physiology, in community composi...

During litter decomposition, part of the water-soluble components of the material dissolve (leach) rapidly into available water in the environment. Studies on litter decomposition that quantify mass-loss from litterbags integrate leaching and mineralization. In contrast to Lind et al. (2022), we believe that correcting for leaching in (terrestrial)...

In temperate soil systems, microbial biomass often increases during winter and decreases again in spring. This build-up and release of microbial carbon could potentially lead to a stabilization of soil carbon during winter times. Whether this increase is caused by changes in microbial physiology, in community composition or by changed substrate all...

Background Soil organic matter (SOM) is important for soil fertility and climate change mitigation. Agricultural management can improve soil fertility and contribute to climate change mitigation by stabilising carbon in soils. This calls for cost‐effective parameters to assess the influence of management practices on SOM contents. Aims The current...

Including information about soil microbial communities into global decomposition models is critical for predicting and understanding how ecosystem functions may shift in response to global change. Here we combined a standardised litter bag method for estimating decomposition rates, the Tea Bag Index (TBI), with high-throughput sequencing of the mic...

Including information about soil microbial communities into global decomposition models is critical for predicting and understanding how ecosystem functions may shift in response to global change. Here we combined a standardised litter bag method for estimating decomposition rates, Tea Bag Index (TBI), with high-throughput sequencing of the microbi...

Zusammenfassung Im Forschungsprojekt FATIMA (FArming Tools for external nutrient Inputs and water MAnagement) wurde ein integrierter Ansatz für die Optimierung des Stickstoffmanagements in der Landwirtschaft gewählt. Neben der technischen Komponente, die die Verarbeitung von Sentinel-2-Satellitendaten umfasste, wurden auch die sozio-ökonomischen As...

Litter decomposition plays a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle, but is difficult to measure on a global scale, especially by citizen scientists. Here, citizen scientists, i.e., school students with their teachers, used the globally applied and standardized Tea Bag Index (TBI) method to collect data on litter decomposition in urban areas in Au...

Climate change and ensuring food security for an exponentially growing global human population are the greatest challenges for future agriculture. Improved soil management practices are crucial to tackle these problems by enhancing agro-ecosystem productivity, soil fertility, and carbon sequestration. To meet Paris climate treaty pledges, soil mana...

Being critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, strengthening understanding of the properties and processes of soil at national and regional scales is imperative. The necessity to realize SDGs by 2030 also inspires a greater sense of responsibility and care for soils. Sustainable management of soil health is...

Nitrogen (N) is crucial for plant nutrition and is often a limiting factor for biomass production that feeds humans and animals and contributes to energy and material use. N fertilization aims at a high N use efficiency, with a maximum of N input taken up by the crop. Otherwise, N losses to water and air will harm the environment and the climate. F...

Austria has a longstanding tradition in bringing soil information to students in schools (Schwarz et al., 2017). As far back as in 1985, an exhibition about the importance of soils went through many Austrian schools. These activities have increased since 2000 with many different activities such as soil school workshops, soil platform for Austria, s...

Fertilization of soil is needed to fulfill the growing demand for livestock feed and human food requirements. However, fertilization has short and long-term impacts on the soil microbiota. These, in turn, may influence plant viability and growth. We investigated the soil microbiota of a 27-year field trial, focusing on the influences of mineral nit...

With increasing societal demands for food security and environmental sustainability on land, the question arises: to what extent do synergies and trade‐offs exist between soil functions and how can they be measured across Europe? To address this challenge, we followed the functional land management approach and assessed five soil functions: primary...

Zusammenfassung Die Korn- und Stroherträge, der Energie-Input (Kraftstoff, Mineraldünger, Pflanzenschutzmittel, Maschinen) und die Kennzahlen zur Energieeffizienz (Energie-Output, Netto-Energie-Output, Energieintensität, Energienutzungseffizienz) in Abhängigkeit der mineralischen Stickstoffdüngermenge (0 kg, 60 kg, 120 kg und 180 kg N ha ⁻¹ ) und d...

Soils perform more functions than primary productivity. Examples of these functions are the recycling of nutrients, the regulation and purification of water, the regulation of the climate, and supporting biodiversity. These abilities are generally referred to as the soil quality. Soil management that favors primary productivity may have positive an...

The decay of organic material—litter decomposition—is a critical process for life on Earth and an essential part of the global carbon cycle. Yet, this basic process remains unknown to many citizens. The Tea Bag Index (TBI) measures decomposition in a standardized, measurable, achievable, climate-relevant, and time-relevant way by burying commercial...

Gardening has the potential to influence several ecosystem services, including soil carbon dynamics, and shape progression towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, (e.g., SDG 13). There are very few citizen/community science projects that have been set up to test an explicit hypothesis. However, citizen/community science allows collection of c...

Soil microbial physiology controls large fluxes of C to the atmosphere, thus, improving our ability to accurately quantify microbial physiology in soil is essential. However, current methods to determine microbial C metabolism require liquid water addition, which makes it practically impossible to measure microbial physiology in dry soil samples wi...

Plant litter decomposition is a key process for carbon dynamics and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. The interaction between litter properties, climatic conditions and soil attributes, influences the activity of microorganisms responsible for litter mineralization. So far, studies using standardized litters to investigate the response of...

Tree mortality from insect infestations can significantly reduce carbon storage in forest soils. In subarctic birch forests (Betula pubescens), ecosystem C cycling is largely affected by recurrent outbreaks of defoliating geometrid moths (Epirrita autumnata, Operophtera brumata). Here, we show that soil C stocks in birch forests across Fennoscandia...

Soils perform many functions that are vital to societies, among which their capability to regulate global climate has received much attention over the past decades. An assessment of the extent to which soils perform a specific function is not only important to appropriately value their current capacity, but also to make well-informed decisions abou...

Phosphorus (P) is indispensable for crop production, and mineral fertilizers processed from rock phosphates, such as superphosphates, represent an important P source. In the past, P fertilizers from iron and steel slags (basic slag) have also contributed to increased biomass productivity. Both types of fertilizer contain heavy metals as potentially...

Agricultural decision support systems (DSSs) are mostly focused on increasing the supply of individual soil functions such as, e.g., primary productivity or nutrient cycling, while neglecting other important soil functions, such as, e.g., water purification and regulation, climate regulation and carbon sequestration, soil biodiversity, and habitat...

Supplementary material for Sandén, H., Mayer, M., Stark, S. et al. Ecosystems (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00394-6 Supplementary Table 1 Path coefficients and significances (p-values) of the final structural equation model (see Fig. 5) describing the effect of disturbance level by moth outbreaks on belowground properties and processe...

Remote sensing data, crop growth models, and optimization routines constitute a toolset that can be used together to map crop yield over large areas when access to field data is limited. In this study, Leaf Area Index (LAI) data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite were combined with the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model to e...

Agricultural soils provide society with several functions, one of which is primary productivity. This function is defined as the capacity of a soil to supply nutrients and water and to produce plant biomass for human use, providing food, feed, fiber, and fuel. For farmers, the productivity function delivers an economic basis and is a prerequisite f...

At the EGU 2019, follow the fate of land and soil carbon dynamics in policy-making from fundamental sciences to international negotiations to farmer recommendations. Join the debate about how policy frameworks can boost science and get involved in policy-making. Tuesday, 09 Apr, 10:45–12:30, Room -2.31

At the EGU2019 this year, there will be a workshop exploring the ways to improve our workplace environment in Geosciences. It will be a unique opportunity to learn, discuss and share experiences on problems of sexual harassment, bullying, etc. in the international research environment. This workshop will also provide strategies for bystander interv...

Soil and its ecosystem functions play a societal role in securing sustainable food production while safeguarding natural resources. A functional land management framework has been proposed to optimize the agro‐environmental outputs from the land and specifically the supply and demand of soil functions such as (a) primary productivity, (b) carbon se...

Im Forschungsprojekt FATIMA wurde ein integrierter Ansatz für die Optimierung des Stickstoffmanagements gewählt. Neben der technischen Komponente, die die Verarbeitung von Sentinel-2 Satellitendaten umfasste, wurden auch die sozialen und ökonomischen Aspekte eines verbesserten Nährstoffmanagements untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass LandwirtInn...

Primary productivity is in the foundation of farming communities. Therefore, much effort is invested in understanding the factors that influence the primary productivity potential of different soils. The International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) is a network that enables valuable comparisons of data in understanding environmental change....

Common soil characteristics, nutrients and microbial activity at deeper soil depths are topics seldom covered in agricultural studies. Biogeochemical cycles in deep soils are not yet fully understood. This study investigates the effect of different mineral and organic fertilisation on soil organic matter dynamics, nutrients and bacterial community...

Organic fertilization has been shown to benefit soil biota. A field experiment was established in 1991 at the AGES experimental research station Ritzlhof to investigate the effects of long-term fertilization on soil biota and crop yields. Experimental plots were cultivated using a crop rotation with maize, wheat, barley, and pea. Eight treatments c...

Due to the legal situation in Austria the competence for soil protection is fragmented between the national and regional administrations. Thus, information transfer and coordinated actions with regard to soil protection and soil awareness have been scarce. In order to improve cooperation, the Austrian Soil Forum as an informal conference format for...

Decision support systems (DSSs) are becoming increasingly used in environmental and ecological sciences for problem solving and decision making. They enable capturing and structuring of the knowledge of one or more domain experts for a specific decision problem. The complex process of developing the DSS model involves several different profiles of...

The Land management Assessment, Research, Knowledge base (LANDMARK) project is a pan European multi-actor consortium that aims to develop a coherent framework for land and soil management for sustainable production across Europe. Soils are a finite resource that provides a range of ecosystem services known as soil functions. Trade-offs between thes...

Alternative management practices such as no‐tillage compared to conventional tillage are expected to recover or increase soil quality and productivity, even though all of these aspects are rarely studied together. Long‐term field experiments (LTEs) enable analysis of alternative management practices over time. This study investigated a total of 251...

Since the onset of agriculture, human-induced land use changes have resulted in a loss of the amount of organic carbon (OC) in soils as a consequence of e.g. deforestation. This soil organic carbon (SOC) is generally transformed to CO2 and subsequently lost to the atmosphere, where it acts as a greenhouse gas. Because of the importance of soils to...

Nutrient cycling (NC) is one of the essential functions that agricultural soils provide. The extent of this function is the result of an intricate interaction of soil properties (S), climate and weather (E) and management by farmers (M). These interactions determine the available options for land use and justify fine-tuning of recommendations and r...

According to predictions by the United Nations global agricultural production must grow by 60% to feed the world population. Soil is one of the key natural resources that enable us to manage this challenge. Primary productivity is one out of five soil functions (water purification, carbon sequestration, habitat for biodiversity, recycling of nutrie...

Primary productivity is the foundation of prosperous farming communities. Therefore, much effort is invested in understanding the underlying factors that influence the primary productivity capacity of different soils. Connecting data from different long-term agricultural field experiments (LTEs) enables valuable comparisons of data in understanding...

Large amounts of carbon are stored in the soil of subarctic regions as decomposition is slow due to low temperature and relative recalcitrant litter. Disturbances such as wind throw has been shown to drastically affect Soil CO2 effluxes in boreal and temperate forests but little is known about how the subarctic forests are affected. In subartic for...

Conventional farming (CONV) is the norm in European farming, causing adverse effects on some of the five major soil functions, viz. primary productivity, carbon sequestration and regulation, nutrient cycling and provision, water regulation and purification, and habitat for functional and intrinsic biodiversity. Conservation agriculture (CA) is an a...

Citizen Science has grown rapidly over the last years in Austria. Since 2015 the platform "Österreich forscht" (www.citizen-science.at) organizes an annual citizen science conference, where researches, practitioners and interested citizens exchange experiences, discuss new methods and connect to each other. Under the motto "Expanding Horizons" the...

Long-term soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrient dynamics following different crop residue management were studied in two field experiments in Austria: in Marchfeld since 1982 and in Alpenvorland since 1986. The turnover of SOM was modeled with the CCB (CANDY carbon balance) model. SOM parameters such as soil organic carbon (SOC), active C (KMnO4),...

To evaluate the agronomic value of animal manure, we quantified the effects of pedo-climatic, crop and management factors on crop productivity, N use efficiency, and soil organic matter, described with simple indicators that compare manures with mineral fertilizers. We selected 80 European long-term field experiments that used bovine farmyard manur...

This paper analyses soils-related policies in Europe and in selected member states and regions. Our approach breaks down policy packages at European, national and regional levels into strategic objectives, operational objectives, policy measures and expected impacts, and assesses the relationships between these elements and soil stakes. Four major...

The project “FArming Tools for external nutrient Inputs and water Management” (FATIMA, H2020-SFS2) is developing satellite-based methodologies and information to support effective and efficient water and nitrogen input recommendations in agricultural production. This paper focuses on nitrogen recommendation for winter cereals in Austria and present...

In order to study the soil aggregate distributions and soil organic matter (SOM), we sampled top- and subsoils in four intensively farmed croplands (two organic (Org-OB and Org-LA), and two conventional (Con-OB and Con-LA)) on Haplic Chernozems located in Marchfeld in the east of Vienna (Austria). Soil structure and SOM quantity, quality and distri...

Agricultural ecosystems provide a range of benefits that are vital to human well-being. These benefits are dependent on several soil functions that are affected in different ways by legislation from the European Union, national, and regional levels. We evaluated current European Union soil-related legislation and examples of regional legislation wi...

This study investigated the long-term effects of different composts (urban organic waste compost (OWC), green waste compost (GWC), cattle manure compost (MC), and sewage sludge compost (SSC)) compared to mineral fertilisation on a loamy silt Cambisol, after a 7 year startup period. The compost application rate was 175 kg N ha⁻¹, with 80 kg mineral...

Cycling of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, is one of the ecosystem services we expect agricultural soils to deliver. Nutrient cycling incorporates the reuse of agricultural, industrial and municipal organic residues that, misleadingly, are often referred to as ‘wastes’. The present review disentangles the processes underlying the cycl...

In near future it is essential for human society to switch its primary energy use from finite sources to renewable ones. Ethanol has been claimed to be a potential candidate to replace oil use to great extent. This study illustrates that ethanol production has the potential to rely on organic agriculture and thereby to reduce reliance on fossil fue...

Recent studies show that a labile soil carbon (C) fraction determined with potassium permanganate (KMnO4) reflects the type of soil management. The present study combines the method for determining the active C (AC) pool with an alternative titration of the 0.02 m KMnO4 solution with sodium oxalate (Na2C2O4) for routine laboratory analyses. Three l...

Inherent in the concept of good agricultural practice (BMP) is that it improves resource use efficiency, mitigates environmental impact or increases farm profitability. However, it is usually impossible to achieve all the objectives, and trade-offs need to be accepted, such as a reduction in productivity together with a reduction in costs or an inc...

Quantity and quality of soil organic matter (SOM) affect physical, chemical, and biological soil properties, and are pivotal to productive and healthy grasslands. Thus, we analyzed the distribution of soil aggregates and assessed quality, quantity, and distribution of SOM in two unimproved and improved (two organic and two conventional) grasslands...

Intensive agricultural production can be an important driver for the loss of long-term soil quality. For this reason, the European Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) network adopted four pairs of agricultural CZO sites that differ in their management: conventional or organic. The CZO sites include two pairs of grassland farms in Iceland and two pairs...