13 June 2011

The new site comprises over 300 sensors set into the ground, which will measure soil pollution from agricultural pollution. INRA has unveiled three such sites, which together will measure pollution from industrial farming as part of the Environmental Research Observatory (ORE) scheme. image expired

Embarking on a ten year period of analysis   

Jean-François Soussana, Scientific director at INRA, explained “we are seeking to better understand the types of agricultural production and their effects on the environment, biodiversity, and air, water and soil pollution. Agriculture is an important factor in our environmental evolution; we need to conduct our experiments over an extended period of time in order to understand the processes.”

The sensors in the soil will measure soil temperature, water content (hygrometry), and greenhouse gas emissions. M. Soussana said, “We are embarking on a ten year period of observation. The duration of the project is extremely important, because although we have conducted several agricultural studies, we have never done anything on this scale.”

He continued that the Picardy site is the first at which air quality will be measured. Furthermore, the ORE project will look at the impacts of certain biofuel crops.

The ORE project was established in 2003, after France experienced a severe heatwave. “We realised then the importance of carbon storage, and the role it had played in releasing greenhouse gasses that year,” said M. Soussana. He warned, “We estimated that four to five years of storage has evaporated and escaped into the atmosphere. This year, if we continue to suffer under this state of drought, we could see the same phenomenon occurring once again.”