ORCHIDEE-Tillage: Explicit Representation of Tillage in a Land Surface Model for Carbon Sequestration and Climate Mitigation

Objective

Centuries of intensive cultivation have depleted soil organic carbon (SOC), releasing CO2 and accelerating climate change. Increasing SOC through sustainable management is therefore seen as a key climate mitigation pathway. Reduced tillage is promoted as a promising measure, but its true sequestration potential remains uncertain. Process-based models can assess management impacts on long-term SOC dynamics, yet existing models oversimplify tillage, assume unrealistic adoption scenarios, or lack vegetation–climate coupling, leaving a critical gap for large-scale tillage impact assessments. This project will develop, calibrate, and apply the first tillage-enabled version of the ORCHIDEE land surface model (ORCHIDEE-TILLAGE). New routines will represent processes affected by tillage, such as residue incorporation, vertical SOC redistribution, aggregate disruption, and hydrological effects. The module will first be calibrated with long-term experiments and validated at the sub-landscape scale. Then, landscape-scale simulations will provide realistic, spatially explicit estimates of SOC sequestration and greenhouse gas mitigation potential under current and alternative adoption scenarios. Results will deliver a robust continental-scale assessment of tillage-based carbon farming in Europe, supporting EU climate policies and carbon markets, and contributing to social and economic sustainability. Finally, given the applicant’s interdisciplinary background, the advanced training program offered by the fellowship is expected to have a defining impact on their scientific career, fostering independence.