The concern about soil quality has increased, since its use and intense mobilization may decreased its ability to keep a biological and sustainable production. However, since soil quality cannot be comprehensively measured by a single indicator, emergy synthesis rises as an alternative to assess this issue. This study aimed to present a comparative method for soil quality vis-a-vis the resource...

BACKGROUND A major global challenge is to provide agricultural production systems that are able to sustain growing demands for food, feed, fibre and renewable raw materials without exacerbating climate change. Detailed and reliable data on the CO(2) balance of different agricultural management activities and inputs as a basis to quantify carbon footprints of agriculture are still lacking. This ...

In modeling and simulation (M&S), we seek to predict the state of a system using a computer-based simulation of a differential equation-based model. In general, the inputs to the model may contain uncertainty due to inherent randomness (aleatory uncertainty), a lack of knowledge (epistemic uncertainty), or a combination of the two. In many practical cases, there is so little knowledge of a mode...

Society relies on Earth system models (ESMs) to project future climate and carbon cycle feedbacks. However, the soil C response to climate change is highly uncertain in these models1,2 and they omit key biogeochemical mechanisms3–5. Specifically, the traditional approach in ESMs lacks direct microbial control over soil C dynamics6–8. Thus, we tested a new model that explicitly represents microb...