Agroforestry systems enhance productivity, resource-use efficiency, and climate resilience, offering a promising pathway for integrating soybean ( Glycine max L. Merr.), European hazelnut ( Corylus avellana L.) and sweet chestnut ( Castanea sativa Mill.) into sustainable farming systems. This study employed a cradle-to-farm gate life cycle assessment, focusing on the climate change impact (carbon footprint) only due to its rel...

Agroforestry is increasingly recognised for its multifunctional benefits, including ecosystem service delivery, biodiversity enhancement, and landscape improvement. As interest in this type of agriculture grows within new agri-environment policies, understanding farmer preferences and barriers to agroforestry adoption becomes critical. This study explored farmer views on agroforestry practices and scheme characteristics throug...

Soil microbial communities perform vital ecosystem functions, such as the decomposition of organic matter to provide plant nutrition. However, despite the functional importance of soil microorganisms, attribution of ecosystem function to particular constituents of the microbial community has been impeded by a lack of information linking microbial function to community composition and structure. Here, we propose a function‐firs...

As a consequence of land‐use change and the burning of fossil fuels, atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 are increasing and altering the dynamics of the carbon cycle in forest ecosystems. In a number of studies using single tree species, fine root biomass has been shown to be strongly increased by elevated CO 2 . However, natural forests are often intimate mixtures of a number of co‐occurring species. To investigate the interac...

The quickly rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 )‐levels, justify the need to explore all carbon (C) sequestration possibilities that might mitigate the current CO 2 increase. Here, we report the likely impact of future increases in atmospheric CO 2 on woody biomass production of three poplar species ( Populus alba L. clone 2AS‐11, Populus nigra L. clone Jean Pourtet and Populus × euramericana clone I‐214). Trees were grow...

A fast growing high density Populus plantation located in central Italy was exposed to elevated carbon dioxide for a period of three years. An elevated CO 2 treatment (550 ppm), of 200 ppm over ambient (350 ppm) was provided using a FACE technique. Standing root biomass, fine root turnover and mycorrhizal colonization of the following Populus species was examined: Populus alba L., Populus nigra L., Populus x euramericana Dode...