Towards Cost Efficient Soil Carbon Measurement and Monitoring
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Transcript of Towards Cost Efficient Soil Carbon Measurement and Monitoring
Towards More Efficient Soil Towards More Efficient Soil Carbon Measurement and Carbon Measurement and
MonitoringMonitoring
Alex. McBratneyBudiman Minasny
Australian Centre for Precision AgricultureFaculty of Agriculture Food & Natural
Resources
Rationale
• Soil stores a lot of carbon• The win-win of storing carbon
Soil stores a lot of carbon 1
• Global organic C storage (0-1 m):
1,200 – 1,600 Petagrams
Soil carbonate carbon larger
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
C O
rg (
%)
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Lat
Atmosphere 770
Vegetation 600
Oceans 40 000
Global NPP 57
Petagram = 1015g = 1012 kg = 109 tonnes
Soil stores a lot of carbon 2
• Globally NPP: 57 x 109 t C y-1
• Edgeroi (150 000 ha): Corg Storage (to 1m) : 13 x 106 t
C• IA Watson (427 ha)
Corg Storage (to 1m) : 25 x 103 t C
0 - 5
5 - 6
6 - 7
7 - 8
8 - 9
9 - 10
10 - 11
11 - 12
12 - 14
14 - 16
16 - 18
18 - 20
Carbon Storage (0-1 m) (kg m-2)
1 = kg m-2 = 10 tonnes/ha 0 10,000 20,0005,000 Meters
K
Z
Slope
Aspect
TWI
Land Use
H1
H2
H3
Ca
Cb
k
Input Hiddenlayer
Output
ˆ ˆ expa bC C k z C
z0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
C (kg m-3)
Dep
th (m
)
CALCAROSOL
CHROMOSOL
DERMOSOL
KANDOSOL
RUDOSOL
SODOSOL
VERTOSOL
Rudosol
Vertosol
Dermosol
Calcarosol
Kandosol
Chromosol
Sodosol
0 - 5
5 - 6
6 - 7
7 - 8
8 - 9
9 - 10
10 - 11
11 - 12
12 - 14
14 - 16
16 - 18
18 - 20
C Storage Edgeroi
The win-win of storing carbon
• Results from StrucCStrucC – Malamoud, McBratney, Minasny & Field 2008
FOM input
Per month
TYPE 1
CO2
CO2
Clay content
SOCm
Clay mass
Complexed clay
NCOC
RPM CO2 CO2
NCOC = f(SOC,clay)
TYPE 2
TYPE 3
Initial bulk density
CC = f(SOC,clay)
DPM
CO2
Non-complexed clay
Is used to calculate
Goes to
Lost
CO2
Fresh matter / pools calculated in the same manner as RothC-26.3
Aggregated and non-aggregated carbon pools
Struc-C
The proposition
• A soil carbon accounting and trading scheme
A soil carbon accounting and trading scheme
Independent auditor Carbon Emitter
Landholder
Government
Buy C offsetCertified Carbon Emission Reduction
credits
Offsetting company
soil carbon sequestrationcontract
Carbon emission target
Audit soil Cat beginning and end of
sequestration contract
soil carbon audit reporting trail
soil C auditing TOOL
(Research)
Advisor of Land management system
Management to optimise C sequestration
Ongoing Land Management and Soil Research
reporting
reporting
e.g. C-Lock
The problem
• Soil carbon is difficult and relatively expensive to measure and monitor
• Two aspects
Cost of measuring soil C
• Soil sampling ~ $100/profile
• Each profile: 4 layers, total C measurement: $40
• Cost per profile: $140
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 10 20 30 40 50
No. samples
Std
. d
ev.
C e
stim
ates
Variation of soil carbon with depth and across space
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
0 10 20 30 40 50
C (kg m-3)
Dep
th (
m)
Changes over time
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
No. years cleared
To
tal C
(d
ag
kg
-1)
C = 0.7 exp(-0.13 years) + 0.8
Odeh et al. (2002)
And by the way …..
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
No. years in irrigated cultivation
Tot
al C
(da
g kg
-1)
SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL
General trend of total soil C storage decline ~0.6 kg m-2 in 20 years
Over the whole area (427 ha) ~ 2700 ton C
4
56
78
910
1112
C S
tora
ge (
kg/m
2)
1985 2007Year
Changes over time
Solutions ……
• Cheaper measurement
• Defining the object
• Monitoring scheme
• Stochastic contracts
Cheaper measurement
• Lab and field NIR/MIR, LIBS, INS
• Cheaper but less precise
Cheaper measurement
• field NIR - profiler
• Cheaper but less precise
Cheaper measurement
• field NIR –
• on-the-go
• Faster, one depth Cheaper but less precise
Inelastic neutron scattering
Wielopolski et al., 2008 Nondestructive System for AnalyzingCarbon in the Soil.Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 72, 1269-1277
Defining the object
• What should the object be?
• Paddock, landuse etc.
• Need to measure C
1 2t tC C C
2 1
1
A
C z z dA
x
x x x
Monitoring scheme
• Scheme to measure C with minimised known uncertainty
1 1 22 1 2 2t t t t t tV C V C C V C V C V C V C
Monitoring scheme
• Too expensive?
• Something simpler required
• Need whole paddocks or properties
Source: Australian Natural Resources Atlas
http://www.anra.gov.au/topics/soils/monitoring/index.html
Nowley Liverpool Plains 2008
stratified random stratified random
sampling schemesampling scheme
1 Crop
2 Drainage
1 Remnant
2 Crop
1 Pasture
2 Pasture
3 Crop
3 Drainage
3 Pasture
4 Crop
4 Remnant
5 Pasture
4 Pasture
Sample location
N
6-1011-1516-2021-2526-3031-35
Total C kg/m3
N
STRATUM Total Carbon
(kg/m3)Stratu
m Area %
Stratum Area (ha)
Carbon (Mg =
tonne)
4 cropping 13.4 34.5 247 33105
1 pasture 14.9 3.0 7 1086
4 pasture 15.1 1.7 169 25614
2 cropping 15.2 1.3 175 26532
2 drainage 16.6 16.0 10 1679
3 cropping 18.3 9.9 534 97741
3 drainage 18.4 10.9 46 8503
3 pasture 19.9 0.7 46 9212
1 cropping 20.5 4.5 12 2439
4 remnant veg 22.8 0.5 20 4459
1 remnant veg 23.0 11.3 70 16088
2 pasture 26.0 0.8 153 39821
5 pasture 27.1 5.1 79 21346
Total C to 1 m = 287 627 tonnesTotal area of Nowley = 1570 ha
• STILL TOO EXPENSIVE!!?
Carbon calculators
Indicative
Not accurate
Suggestion “Moral hazard reduction”
contracts
• Inevitable uncertainty in C.
• Pay carbon sequesterer on, say, lower 95% confidence value
• But if producer wants higher payment then he can invest in more measurement to reduce C uncertainty.
Latest developments
• We have a 3-year Australian Research Council Linkage project to work on this – awarded Oct. 2008, begins Mar. 2009
• Partners USyd ACPA, EES and 3DAg.
Summary
Independent auditor Carbon Emitter
Landholder
Government
Buy C offsetCertified Carbon Emission Reduction
credits
Offsetting company
soil carbon sequestrationcontract
Carbon emission target
Audit soil Cat beginning and end of
sequestration contract
soil carbon audit reporting trail
soil C auditing TOOL
(Research)
Advisor of Land management system
Management to optimise C sequestration
Ongoing Land Management and Soil Research
reporting
reporting
e.g. C-Lock
Conclusion
Soil carbon auditing as part of carbon emissions offsets trading
• There’s a good reason to do it
• There are some obstacles
• We need to find solutions quickly but we’re on the way
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results
N
Total C kg/m3