Dynamics of Soil Organic Matter in Agricultural Landscapes

Soil organic matter is an essential key in the functioning of soils and landscapes. Not only because of its importance as a carbon sink for the mitigation of climate change but also to recommend farmers sustainable soil management, the modelling of organic matter turnover is a well-integrated part of soil science. This article provides a short review of modelling approaches for carbon and nitrogen fluxes related to organic matter turnover with an example at landscape scale where beside dedicated process simulation indicators are helpful tools to assess changes in land management. This is explained in more detail for the development of biogas production and its feedbacks to soil organic matter.