The loss of soil and carbon (C) from erosional processes is of greater importance to agricultural productivity and sustainable resource management. Land management practices influence structural properties of soil aggregates, its size and stability, and the stabilization effect of soil organic carbon (SOC), and other cementing agents. Water erosion affects all these properties and consequently decreases productivity of land. Thus, relative significance of loss of soil and C from dry and wet aggregates was studied from soil sampled from the North Appalachian Experimental Watersheds (NAWEP).

The importance of soil storage in global carbon cycling is well recognised and factors leading to increased losses from this pool may act as a positive feedback mechanism in global warming. Upland peat soils are usually assumed to serve as carbon sinks, there is however increasing evidence of carbon loss from upland peat soils, and DOC concentrations in UK rivers have increased markedly over the past three decades.

Calibration and validation of simulation models describing herbage growth or feed quality of semi-natural grasslands is a complex task for agronomists without investing effort into botanical surveys. To facilitate such modelling efforts, a limited number of grassland types were identified using a functional classification of species. These grassland types were characterized by three descriptors required to model herbage growth or feed quality: the abundance-weighted mean leaf dry matter content across grass species, the relative abundance of grasses, and an estimate of species richness.