Carbon farming: Are soil carbon certificates a suitable tool for climate change mitigation?

Increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in agricultural soils removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and contributes towards achieving carbon neutrality. For farmers, higher SOC levels have multiple benefits, including increased soil fertility and resilience against drought-related yield losses. However, increasing SOC levels requires agricultural management changes that are associated with costs. Private soil carbon certificates could compensate for these costs. In these schemes, farmers register their fields with commercial certificate providers who certify SOC increases. Certificates are then sold as voluntary emission offsets on the carbon market. In this paper, we assess the suitability of these certificates as an instrument for climate change mitigation. From a soils' perspective, we address processes of SOC enrichment, their potentials and limits, and options for cost-effective measurement and monitoring. From a farmers' perspective, we assess management options likely to increase SOC, and discuss their synergies and trade-offs with economic, environmental and social targets. From a governance perspective, we address requirements to guarantee additionality and permanence while preventing leakage effects. Furthermore, we address questions of legitimacy and accountability. While increasing SOC is a cornerstone for more sustainable cropping systems, private carbon certificates fall short of expectations for climate change mitigation as permanence of SOC sequestration cannot be guaranteed. Governance challenges include lack of long-term monitoring, problems to ensure additionality, problems to safeguard against leakage effects, and lack of long-term accountability if stored SOC is re-emitted. We conclude that soil-based private carbon certificates are unlikely to deliver the emission offset attributed to them and that their benefit for climate change mitigation is uncertain. Additional research is needed to develop standards for SOC change metrics and monitoring, and to better understand the impact of short term, non-permanent carbon removals on peaks in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and on the probability of exceeding climatic tipping points.

Changes in the pattern of suicides and suicide attempt admissions in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The consequences of the current COVID-19 pandemic for mental health remain unclear, especially regarding the effects on suicidal behaviors. To assess changes in the pattern of suicide attempt (SA) admissions and completed suicides (CS) in association with the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of a longitudinal study, SA admissions and CS are systematically documented and analyzed in all psychiatric hospitals in Frankfurt/Main (765.000 inhabitants). Number, sociodemographic factors, diagnoses and methods of SA and CS were compared between the periods of March-December 2019 and March-December 2020. The number of CS did not change, while the number of SA significantly decreased. Age, sex, occupational status, and psychiatric diagnoses did not change in SA, whereas the percentage of patients living alone while attempting suicide increased. The rate and number of intoxications as a SA method increased and more people attempted suicide in their own home, which was not observed in CS. Such a shift from public places to home is supported by the weekday of SA, as the rate of SA on weekends was significantly lower during the pandemic, likely because of lockdown measures. Only admissions to psychiatric hospitals were recorded, but not to other institutions. As it seems unlikely that the number of SA decreased while the number of CS remained unchanged, it is conceivable that the number of unreported SA cases increased during the pandemic. Our data suggest that a higher number of SA remained unnoticed during the pandemic because of their location and the use of methods associated with lower lethality.

Quantitative mapping and spectroscopic characterization of particulate organic matter fractions in soil profiles with imaging VisNIR spectroscopy.

Organic matter is an important constituent of soils that controls many soil functions and is of vital importance for ecosystem services like climate regulation and food security. Soil organic matter (SOM consists of a wide spectrum of different organic substances that are highly heterogeneous in terms of chemical composition, stability against microbial decomposition and turnover time. SOM is heterogeneously distributed in the soil profile impeding its fast assessment. A technique to accurately measure SOM quality and quantity with a high spatial resolution in the soil profile is presently lacking. Imaging visible light and near infrared spectroscopy (imVisIR) is a promising technique for the fast and spatially resolved assessment of SOM quality and quantity. In this study, we evaluate the potential of imVisIR to quantitatively map the labile particulate organic matter fraction in undisturbed cores from mineral soils.

[The Importance of High Quality Discharge Letters: An Empirical Investigation]. / Die Bedeutung qualitativ hochwertiger Entlassbriefe: Eine empirische Untersuchung.

INTRODUCTION: The discharge letter is part of the discharge management. This study empirically examines the quality of discharge letters after a stay in a psychiatric/psychosomatic clinic using a self-developed code list. Suggestions are made for the creation and structuring of high-quality discharge letters that provide information to practitioners and institutions that should help in the seamless further treatment of patients. METHOD: Different aspects of the social-psychiatric and social-medical assessments in 50 discharge letters were evaluated by 2 raters each; in case of disagreements in evaluation, a consensus was reached. RESULTS: The average time between discharge from hospital and completion of the discharge letter was 22.4 days (median: 15.0 days). In 18% of cases, the letter of discharge was available at the time of discharge and in 14% within one week. In 24% of cases, the letter of discharge was only available after 27 days or longer. In 97.5% of the cases, the medication was completely listed, but in 52% of the cases, there was no information on further medical treatment by the specialist. When further treatment was recommended (n=10, e. g. day clinic or PIA), it was initiated in only three cases. At the time of admission, 28 patients had a job. Information on the employment status of 11 patients was missing. Information on the ability to work at the time of admission was complete in 44% and incomplete in 20%. At the time of discharge, seven patients were able to work, 19 were incapacitated and information on work ability was missing in the discharge report of 24 patients. CONCLUSION: A high quality discharge letter contains clear formulations, is structured, contains only relevant information and a separate chapter "Therapy recommendations/recommendations for further action". Electronic discharge letters with automated inclusion of examination findings/assessments save time and money during preparation and reading.

Hotspots of soil organic carbon storage revealed by laboratory hyperspectral imaging.

Subsoil organic carbon (OC) is generally lower in content and more heterogeneous than topsoil OC, rendering it difficult to detect significant differences in subsoil OC storage. We tested the application of laboratory hyperspectral imaging with a variety of machine learning approaches to predict OC distribution in undisturbed soil cores. Using a bias-corrected random forest we were able to reproduce the OC distribution in the soil cores with very good to excellent model goodness-of-fit, enabling us to map the spatial distribution of OC in the soil cores at very high resolution (~53 × 53 µm). Despite a large increase in variance and reduction in OC content with increasing depth, the high resolution of the images enabled statistically powerful analysis in spatial distribution of OC in the soil cores. In contrast to the relatively homogeneous distribution of OC in the plough horizon, the subsoil was characterized by distinct regions of OC enrichment and depletion, including biopores which contained ~2-10 times higher SOC contents than the soil matrix in close proximity. Laboratory hyperspectral imaging enables powerful, fine-scale investigations of the vertical distribution of soil OC as well as hotspots of OC storage in undisturbed samples, overcoming limitations of traditional soil sampling campaigns.

Small-scale distribution of copper in a Technosol horizon studied by nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry.

RATIONALE: In contaminated soil, copper (Cu) is commonly distributed among various very small particles. To enlighten the qualitative distribution of Cu in a contaminated Technosol (a soil developed from deposited technogenic material) on the sub-micron scale, we used nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS). METHODS: We studied seven areas (up to 40 µm × 40 µm) on a thin section of a soil horizon by NanoSIMS, measuring 12 C- , 18 O- , 32 S- , 63 Cu- and 56 Fe16 O- . We evaluated the NanoSIMS measurements with a novel digital image processing tool to enlighten the composition of measured areas and thus the distribution of Cu at the sub-micron scale. Image processing comprised spatial and spectral smoothing, normalization, endmember extraction and supervised classification. RESULTS: Copper was present in all areas studied on the thin section in hotspots. 63 Cu- was never the ion with the highest number of mean-normalized counts (MNCs). In classes indicating Cu accumulation, Fe or S had the highest MNCs with mostly small values for O, pointing to the presence of Cu in sulfides. Copper adsorbed on Fe oxides was also indicated. Direct interaction of Cu with organic matter was less important. Copper-containing minerals were rather adjacent to or surrounded by an organic matrix. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of NanoSIMS analyses with digital image processing gave us new insights into the distribution of Cu in contaminated soil. We suggest this combination as a new powerful tool for the identification of ionic contaminants in soil and other solid phases in the environment.

Identification of Distinct Functional Microstructural Domains Controlling C Storage in Soil.

The physical, chemical, and biological processes forming the backbone of important soil functions (e.g., carbon sequestration, nutrient and contaminant storage, and water transport) take place at reactive interfaces of soil particles and pores. The accessibility of these interfaces is determined by the spatial arrangement of the solid mineral and organic soil components, and the resulting pore system. Despite the development and application of novel imaging techniques operating at the micrometer and even nanometer scale, the microstructure of soils is still considered as a random arrangement of mineral and organic components. Using nanoscale secondary ion mass spectroscopy (NanoSIMS) and a novel digital image processing routine adapted from remote sensing (consisting of image preprocessing, endmember extraction, and a supervised classification), we extensively analyzed the spatial distribution of secondary ions that are characteristic of mineral and organic soil components on the submicrometer scale in an intact soil aggregate (40 measurements, each covering an area of 30 µm × 30 µm with a lateral resolution of 100 nm × 100 nm). We were surprised that the 40 spatially independent measurements clustered in just two complementary types of micrometer-sized domains. Each domain is characterized by a microarchitecture built of a definite mineral assemblage with various organic matter forms and a specific pore system, each fulfilling different functions in soil. Our results demonstrate that these microarchitectures form due to self-organization of the manifold mineral and organic soil components to distinct mineral assemblages, which are in turn stabilized by biophysical feedback mechanisms acting through pore characteristics and microbial accessibility. These microdomains are the smallest units in soil that fulfill specific functionalities.

Anthropogenic N deposition increases soil organic matter accumulation without altering its biochemical composition.

Accumulating evidence indicates that future rates of atmospheric N deposition have the potential to increase soil C storage by reducing the decay of plant litter and soil organic matter (SOM). Although the microbial mechanism underlying this response is not well understood, a decline in decay could alter the amount, as well as biochemical composition of SOM. Here, we used size-density fractionation and solid-state 13 C-NMR spectroscopy to explore the extent to which declines in microbial decay in a long-term (ca. 20 yrs.) N deposition experiment have altered the biochemical composition of forest floor, bulk mineral soil, as well as free and occluded particulate organic matter. Significant amounts of organic matter have accumulated in occluded particulate organic matter (~20%; oPOM); however, experimental N deposition had not altered the abundance of carboxyl, aryl, alkyl, or O/N-alkyl C in forest floor, bulk mineral soil, or any soil fraction. These observations suggest that biochemically equivalent organic matter has accumulated in oPOM at a greater rate under experimental N deposition, relative to the ambient treatment. Although we do not understand the process by which experimental N deposition has fostered the occlusion of organic matter by mineral soil particles, our results highlight the importance of interactions among the products of microbial decay and the chemical and physical properties of silt and clay particles that occlude organic matter from microbial attack. Because oPOM can reside in soils for decades to centuries, organic matter accumulating under future rates of anthropogenic N deposition could remain in soil for long periods of time. If temperate forest soils in the Northern Hemisphere respond like those in our experiment, then unabated deposition of anthropogenic N from the atmosphere has the potential to foster greater soil C storage, especially in fine-texture forest soils.

Effects of biological and methodological factors on volatile organic compound patterns during cultural growth of Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis.

Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) causes chronic granulomatous enteritis in ruminants. Bacterial growth is still the diagnostic 'gold standard', but is very time consuming. MAP-specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) above media could accelerate cultural diagnosis. The aim of this project was to assess the kinetics of a VOC profile linked to the growth of MAP in vitro. The following sources of variability were taken into account: five different culture media, three different MAP strains, inoculation with different bacterial counts, and different periods of incubation. Needle-trap microextraction was employed for pre-concentration of VOCs, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for subsequent analysis. All volatiles were identified and calibrated by analysing pure references at different concentration levels. More than 100 VOCs were measured in headspaces above MAP-inoculated and control slants. Results confirmed different VOC profiles above different culture media. Emissions could be assigned to either egg-containing media or synthetic ingredients. 43 VOCs were identified as potential biomarkers of MAP growth on Herrold's Egg Yolk Medium without significant differences between the tree MAP strains. Substances belonged to the classes of alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. With increasing bacterial density the VOC concentrations above MAP expressed different patterns: the majority of substances increased (although a few decreased after reaching a peak), but nine VOCs clearly decreased. Data support the hypotheses that (i) bacteria emit different metabolites on different culture media; (ii) different MAP strains show uniform VOC patterns; and (iii) cultural diagnosis can be accelerated by taking specific VOC profiles into account.

Impact of food intake on in vivo VOC concentrations in exhaled breath assessed in a caprine animal model.

Physiological processes within the body may change emitted volatile organic compound (VOC) composition, and may therefore cause confounding biological background variability in breath gas analyses. To evaluate the effect of food intake on VOC concentration patterns in exhaled breath, this study assessed the variability of VOC concentrations due to food intake in a standardized caprine animal model. VOCs in (i) alveolar breath gas samples of nine clinically healthy goats and (ii) room air samples were collected and pre-concentrated before morning feeding and repeatedly after (+60 min, +150 min, +240 min) using needle trap microextraction (NTME). Analysis of VOCs was performed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Only VOCs with significantly higher concentrations in breath gas samples compared to room air samples were taken into consideration. Six VOCs that belonged to the chemical classes of hydrocarbons and alcohols were identified presenting significantly different concentrations before and after feeding. Selected hydrocarbons showed a concentration pattern that was characterized by an initial increase 60 min after food intake, and a subsequent gradual decrease. Results emphasize consideration of physiological effects on exhaled VOC concentrations due to food intake with respect to standardized protocols of sample collection and critical evaluation of results.

Physiological variability in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath and released from faeces due to nutrition and somatic growth in a standardized caprine animal model.

Physiological effects may change volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations and may therefore act as confounding factors in the definition of VOCs as disease biomarkers. To evaluate the extent of physiological background variability, this study assessed the effects of feed composition and somatic growth on VOC patterns in a standardized large animal model. Fifteen clinically healthy goats were followed during their first year of life. VOCs present in the headspace over faeces, exhaled breath and ambient air inside the stable were repeatedly assessed in parallel with the concentrations of glucose, protein, and albumin in venous blood. VOCs were collected and analysed using solid-phase or needle-trap microextraction and gas chromatograpy together with mass spectroscopy. The concentrations of VOCs in exhaled breath and above faeces varied significantly with increasing age of the animals. The largest variations in volatiles detected in the headspace over faeces occurred with the change from milk feeding to plant-based diet. VOCs above faeces and in exhaled breath correlated significantly with blood components. Among VOCs exhaled, the strongest correlations were found between exhaled nonanal concentrations and blood concentrations of glucose and albumin. Results stress the importance of a profound knowledge of the physiological backgrounds of VOC composition before defining reliable and accurate marker sets for diagnostic purposes.

Carbon storage capacity of semi-arid grassland soils and sequestration potentials in northern China.

Organic carbon (OC) sequestration in degraded semi-arid environments by improved soil management is assumed to contribute substantially to climate change mitigation. However, information about the soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potential in steppe soils and their current saturation status remains unknown. In this study, we estimated the OC storage capacity of semi-arid grassland soils on the basis of remote, natural steppe fragments in northern China. Based on the maximum OC saturation of silt and clay particles <20 µm, OC sequestration potentials of degraded steppe soils (grazing land, arable land, eroded areas) were estimated. The analysis of natural grassland soils revealed a strong linear regression between the proportion of the fine fraction and its OC content, confirming the importance of silt and clay particles for OC stabilization in steppe soils. This relationship was similar to derived regressions in temperate and tropical soils but on a lower level, probably due to a lower C input and different clay mineralogy. In relation to the estimated OC storage capacity, degraded steppe soils showed a high OC saturation of 78-85% despite massive SOC losses due to unsustainable land use. As a result, the potential of degraded grassland soils to sequester additional OC was generally low. This can be related to a relatively high contribution of labile SOC, which is preferentially lost in the course of soil degradation. Moreover, wind erosion leads to substantial loss of silt and clay particles and consequently results in a direct loss of the ability to stabilize additional OC. Our findings indicate that the SOC loss in semi-arid environments induced by intensive land use is largely irreversible. Observed SOC increases after improved land management mainly result in an accumulation of labile SOC prone to land use/climate changes and therefore cannot be regarded as contribution to long-term OC sequestration.

In Vivo Volatile Organic Compound Signatures of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis.

Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causative agent of a chronic enteric disease of ruminants. Available diagnostic tests are complex and slow. In vitro, volatile organic compound (VOC) patterns emitted from MAP cultures mirrored bacterial growth and enabled distinction of different strains. This study was intended to determine VOCs in vivo in the controlled setting of an animal model. VOCs were pre-concentrated from breath and feces of 42 goats (16 controls and 26 MAP-inoculated animals) by means of needle trap microextraction (breath) and solid phase microextraction (feces) and analyzed by gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry. Analyses were performed 18, 29, 33, 41 and 48 weeks after inoculation. MAP-specific antibodies and MAP-specific interferon-γ-response were determined from blood. Identities of all marker-VOCs were confirmed through analysis of pure reference substances. Based on detection limits in the high pptV and linear ranges of two orders of magnitude more than 100 VOCs could be detected in breath and in headspace over feces. Twenty eight substances differed between inoculated and non-inoculated animals. Although patterns of most prominent substances such as furans, oxygenated substances and hydrocarbons changed in the course of infection, differences between inoculated and non-inoculated animals remained detectable at any time for 16 substances in feces and 3 VOCs in breath. Differences of VOC concentrations over feces reflected presence of MAP bacteria. Differences in VOC profiles from breath were linked to the host response in terms of interferon-γ-response. In a perspective in vivo analysis of VOCs may help to overcome limitations of established tests.

Photodegradation of antibiotics on soil surfaces: laboratory studies on sulfadiazine in an ozone-controlled environment.

Among the processes affecting transport and degradation of antibiotics released to the environment during application of manure and slurry to agricultural land, photochemical transformations are of particular interest. Drying-out of the top soil layer under field conditions enables sorption of surface-applied antibiotics to soil dust, thus facilitating direct, indirect, and sensitized photodegradation at the soil/atmosphere interface. For studying various photochemical transformation processes of sulfadiazine, a photovolatility chamber designed in accordance with the requirements of the USEPA Guideline and 161-3 was used. Application of 14C-labeled sulfadiazine enabled complete mass balances and allowed for investigating the impact of various surfaces (glass and soil dust) and environmental factors, i.e., irradiation and atmospheric ozone, on photodegradation and volatilization. Volatilization was shown to be a negligible process. Even after increasing the air temperature up to 35 degrees C only minor amounts of sulfadiazine and transformation products (0.01-0.28% of applied radioactivity) volatilized. Due to direct and indirect photodegradation, the highest extent of mineralization to 14CO2 (3.9%), the formation of degradation products and of nonextractable soil residues was measured in irradiated soil dust experiments using ozone concentrations of 200 ppb. However, even in the dark significant mineralization was observed when ozone was present, indicating ozone-controlled transformation of sulfadiazine to occur at the soil surface.