The Land Capability Classification for Agriculture has as its objective the presentation of detailed information on soil, climate and relief in a form which will be of value to land use planners, agricultural advisers, farmers and others involved in optimising the use of land resources. The classification ranks land on the basis of its potential productivity and cropping flexibility determined by the extent to which its physical characteristics (soil, climate and relief) impose long term restrictions on its agricultural use. THE CLASSES Class 1. Land capable of producing a very wide range of crops with high yields Class 2. Land capable of producing a wide range of crops with yields less high than Class 1. Class 3. Land capable of producing good yields from a moderate range of crops. Class 4. Land capable of producing a narrow range of crops. Class 5. Land suited only to improved grassland and rough grazing. Class 6. Land capable only of use as rough grazing. Class 7. Land of very limited agricultural value. THE DIVISIONS A division is a ranking within a class. As the requirements of the crops suited to Classes 1 and 2 are fairly stringent, land in these classes has inherently low degrees of internal variability and no divisions are present. The requirements of crops grown in the remaining classes are less rigorous, consequently land included is more variable in character.

The SOERE-ACBB is a set of three platforms involving long-term (> 20 yrs) field experiments initiated in 2005-2009. Long-term studies are carried out on biogeochemical cycles and functional biodiversity (flora and fauna) in agroecosystems as affected by land use, management practices and climate change. The SOERE-ACBB covers three land use and climatic regions in France: temporary grassland, permanent grassland and arable land. The main hypothesis tested is that the evolution of the systems in response to anthropogenic disturbances and land use management is strongly linked to the dynamics of quantitative and qualitative composition of soil organic matter (SOM) and vegetation diversity. SOERE-ACBB is unique in enabling analysis of feedback loops between management practices, biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity by offering opportunities for simultaneous study of interactions between SOM dynamics, microbial communities and vegetation under various management practices of agroecosystems. The platforms are designed to characterize the trajectories of key variables of the systems throughout time as changes occur – elements such as carbon, phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen and the diversity of plants and organisms in the soil – over years or decades. The platform’s instrumentation continuously quantifies a broad range of physical, chemical and biological variables: climate forcing variables, physical conditions in soil, water fluxes and quality, carbon and nitrogen storage in soil, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), floral, faunal and microbial diversity. The ability to monitor quantitative and qualitative changes in SOM over time will allow scientists to relate the overall evolution to energy balance and resource elements. Although SOERE-ACBB is a national infrastructure, scientists from other countries are welcome and can benefit from the acquired experience and knowledge. SOERE-ACBB has been involved in many international projects such as the Global Research Alliance and the International soil warming experiment network and is still a partner in a number of ongoing projects such as ExpeER, AnimalChange, Ecofinders and Multisward.

The Lusignan platform is dedicated to temporary grassland. It has been designed to increase our understanding of the effects of management of mixed arable crops / grasslands systems on the environmental outputs. The main scientific issue concerns the effects of grassland duration and management on SOM dynamics (quantity and composition), GHG emissions (CO2, N2O), nutrient lixiviation and functional biodiversity.

The Estrées-Mons platform is dedicated to arable crops. It evaluates the effect of agricultural practices on C and N cycles in the soil-plant system and their interaction. Nitrate leaching, SOM evolution and GHG emissions (CO2, N2O) are monitored according to level of N intensification, crop residues export, soil tillage and legume frequency. The key issue is to understand how the wide variation in C and N inputs affects C and N cycles in more or less intensified systems.