Quantifying carbon for agricultural soil management: from the current status toward a global soil information system. Issue 6 (2nd November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Paustian, Keith; Collier, Sarah; Baldock, Jeff; Burgess, Rachel; Creque, Jeff; DeLonge, Marcia; Dungait, Jennifer; Ellert, Ben; Frank, Stefan; Goddard, Tom; Govaerts, Bram; Grundy, Mike; Henning, Mark; Izaurralde, R. César; Madaras, Mikuláš; McConkey, Brian; Porzig, Elizabeth; Rice, Charles; Searle, Ross; Seavy, Nathaniel; Skalsky, Rastislav; Mulhern, William; Jahn, Molly
• Is Part Of: Carbon management. Volume 10:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 567
• Page End: 587
• Publication Date: 2019-11-02
• Subjects: Soil carbon -- carbon sequestration -- measurement methods -- SOC models -- soil monitoring -- soil health; Carbon dioxide mitigation -- Periodicals; Greenhouse gas mitigation -- Periodicals; Carbon dioxide -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Greenhouse gases -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; 363.73874605
• DOI: 10.1080/17583004.2019.1633231
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-3004

Abstract

Abstract: The importance of building/maintaining soil carbon, for soil health and CO2 mitigation, is of increasing interest to a wide audience, including policymakers, NGOs and land managers. Integral to any approaches to promote carbon sequestering practices in managed soils are reliable, accurate and cost-effective means to quantify soil C stock changes and forecast soil C responses to different management, climate and edaphic conditions. While technology to accurately measure soil C concentrations and stocks has been in use for decades, many challenges to routine, cost-effective soil C quantification remain, including large spatial variability, low signal-to-noise and often high cost and standardization issues for direct measurement with destructive sampling. Models, empirical and process-based, may provide a cost-effective and practical means for soil C quantification to support C sequestration policies. Examples are described of how soil science and soil C quantification methods are being used to support domestic climate change policies to promote soil C sequestration on agricultural lands (cropland and grazing land) at national and provincial levels in Australia and Canada. Finally, a quantification system is outlined – consisting of well-integrated data-model frameworks, supported by expanded measurement and monitoring networks, remote sensing and crowd-sourcing of management activity data – that could comprise the core of a new global soil information system.