Soil carbon types & carbon flows

World Resources Institute challenges regenerative agriculture advocates claims about soil carbon as a major offset for agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Adopting management to support and increase soil carbon on a continuous basis is vital for supporting a multitude of ecosystem functions but does not guarantee soil carbon increases are permanent.

Emission Reduction Fund soil carbon projects are proliferating on Australian farms despite warnings from scientists they are not providing permanent carbon abatement.

Two new publications about the science of soil carbon abatement do not align well with the optimism amongst carbon project facilitators for achieving permanent, commercially large increases through changing land management practices.

When carbon credits are sold off the farm to a third party, the farm business cannot then claim them for accessing carbon neutral markets.

Changing grazing and land management practices to bolster ecosystem functions is positive for the environment but may not necessarily lead into trading soil carbon.

Trees age. And at some point, they die. When that happens, decay begins, sending carbon back into the atmosphere as CO2. Other smaller trees will then take over, thereby leaving a fairly stable CO2 stock in the forest.

This research contends global warming is likely to increase soil carbon losses particularly in regions with high carbon stocks.

This research is suggesting that the carbon sequestered in the soil can be released faster than previously thought [and play a role in] future climate change,”

The challenge for agricultural science surrounding increasing or maintaining soil organic carbon level, is to provide farmers with knowledge that gives them confidence that the practice changes being recommended will achieve the desired outcomes under their individual soil type, climate, enterprise and business circumstances.

Soils from restored prairie ecosystems, with many different plant species, had many more pores of the right size for stable carbon storage than did a pure stand of switchgrass.

Kangaroos do the most damage to the environment during extended dry periods when perennial grasses are forced to go into dormancy. Australia would probably be better off financially and environmentally if properties were fenced to protect them from kangaroos. Alan Lauder explains why.

In the soil, the decomposition of living things forms the soil carbon sponge, which can resiliently sustain plant life, affect the earth’s hydrology and heat balance, and may give humans the near-term leverage we need to avert catastrophic climate change, restore hydrologic function, maintain our economies and civilizations, and maintain and enhance human health.

By Patrick Francis The value of optimising soil organic carbon (SOC) to farming ecosystems and plant and livestock productivity is

By Alan Lauder Farmers, advisors and scientists have become too preoccupied with carbon stocks and measuring carbon and not paying

By Don Comis A sticky protein seems to be the unsung hero of soil carbon storage. Until its discovery in

  By James Nason Southern Queensland landholders Rory and Kathy Frost have turned a long-term claypan into productive land that

By Alan Lauder Given that the bulk of the “improvement” in production comes from increasing labile (short term) soil carbon

By Patrick Francis An interesting scenario for many cropping paddocks as a result of two years of above average rainfall