training courses

MOOC Soil & Climate

Descriptif de la formation

The MOOC "Soil and Climate" is aimed at students in agronomy and ecology, as well as agricultural professionals, project managers from consultancy firms or rural development NGOs, and all stakeholders in the territories who wish to enrich their knowledge of the issues, processes and strategies related to the carbon cycle.

The objective of the MOOC is to show the crucial role of soils and their uses in the global carbon cycle. If you have heard "Carbon sequestration in soils is a means to mitigate and adapt to climate change; it supports food security", this MOOC will give you elements to understand why and within what limits this statement is true.

Soil carbon is the major component of soil organic matter. Its stocks and dynamics are central to the functioning and fertility of agricultural and forest soils. They are closely linked to soil use. Soil carbon issues are thus multiple and tangible at different levels, from the management of agricultural production to the development of national climate plans. MOOC aims to cover the full complexity of these issues by answering the questions: What are the processes involved in the dynamics of carbon stocks? How can we play on these processes? What are the technical and social-economic risks, brakes and leverage of strategies to protect and improve carbon stocks? What are the tools for evaluating these strategies?

Different disciplines will be mobilized as part of the MOOC, such as climatologists, soil scientists, biogeochemists, agronomists and economists will be involved in order to present different contexts (soil types, climate, uses, institutions) and their influences on soil and climate.

Partnership:
Ademe, INRAE, Institut Agro/Montpellier SupAgro, IRD, FAO, Cirad, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (CEA, CNRS, UPS, et UVQS)

Financial support:
"Ademe" and "Fondation Avril"


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Prerequisites

Knowledge of science, particularly soil sciences


Programme

- Week 1: Climate change issues
- Week 2: Ecosystem services provided by soil organic matter
- Week 3: Biophysical processes and biophysical basis of carbon storage in soils
- Week 4: Quantifying soil carbon stocks and their evolution
- Week 5: Agronomic and forestry strategies
- Week 6: Socio-economic action levers


Acquired skills

- Understand the roles and challenges of soil carbon preservation in the context of climate change
- Knowing the tools for assessing and modelling carbon stocks in soils in order to reuse them
- Implement strategies for storing carbon in soils, taking into account the agricultural, but also economic and social dimensions, at different scales


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