Estimation of carbon stocks in boreal cropland soils

Article: Estimation of carbon stocks in boreal cropland soils – methodological considerations

Authors: Heikkinen, Jaakko et al.

Journal: European Journal of Soil Science

Year: 2020

Harnessing agricultural soils as carbon sinks requires methods for verifying changes in soil organic carbon stocks. More precise estimates of the effects of different land-use and management types on soil organic carbon are also needed. In this study, a sample set included in the Finnish national soil monitoring network was used to determine the soil organic carbon stock and the vertical distribution of it in Finnish agricultural mineral soils. The results showed that the boreal agricultural mineral soils have high carbon contents. Crop rotations with perennial crops enriched carbon in the soil surface. Detecting the change of soil carbon stocks via soil sampling requires a high number of samples. Thus, verification requires modelling combined with field-level data, which can be collected using for instance remote sensing.