Mapping and comparing the distribution of soil carbon under cropping and grazing management practices in Narrabri, north-west New South Wales
Matthew Miklos A , Michael G. Short A B , Alex B. McBratney A and Budiman Minasny AA Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, The University of Sydney, JRA McMillan Building A05, NSW 2006, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: michael.short@sydney.edu.au
Australian Journal of Soil Research 48(3) 248-257 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR09111
Submitted: 19 June 2009 Accepted: 17 December 2009 Published: 6 May 2010
Abstract
The reliable assessment of soil carbon stock is of key importance for soil conservation and mitigation strategies related to reducing atmospheric carbon. Measuring and monitoring soil carbon is complex because carbon pools cycle and rates of carbon sequestration vary across the landscape due to climate, soil type, and management practices. A new methodology has been developed and applied to make an assessment of the distribution of total, organic, and inorganic carbon at a grains research and grazing property in northern New South Wales at a high spatial resolution. In this study, baseline soil carbon maps were created using fine resolution, geo-referenced, proximal sensor data. Coupled with a digital elevation model and secondary terrain attributes, all of the data layers were combined by k-means clustering to develop a stratified random soil sampling scheme for the survey area. Soil samples taken at 0.15-m increments to a depth of 1 m were scanned with a mid-infrared spectrometer, which was calibrated using a proportion of the samples that were analysed in a laboratory for total carbon and inorganic carbon content. This combination of new methodologies and technologies has the potential to provide large volumes of reliable, fine resolution and timely data required to make baseline assessments, mapping, monitoring, and verification possible. This method has the potential to make soil carbon management and trading at the farm-scale possible by quantifying the carbon stock to a depth of 1 m and at a high spatial resolution.
Additional keywords: soil carbon sequestration, carbon mapping, proximal soil sensors, stratified sampling scheme, MIR spectrometry, travelling stock route.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by an ARC Discovery project ‘High Resolution Digital Soil Mapping’.
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