National Soil Carbon Program: Answers to questions about managing soil

carbon for Australia

Dalal, Ram1; Allen, Diane1; Baldock, Jeff2; Bird, Michael3: Farrell, Mark2; Hayes, Richard4; Hoyle, Frances5;
McDonald, Glenn6; Paul, Keryn2; Robertson, Fiona7; Sanderman, Jonathan2; Scheer Clemens8; Schultz,
James9; Smith, Tim10; Waters, Cathy4
Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts ram.dalal@qld.gov.au

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) jeff.baldock@csiro.au

James Cook University michael.bird@jcu.edu.au

New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, FFCRC richard.hayes@dpi.nsw.gov.au

New South Wales Department of Primary Industries cathy.waters@dpi.nsw.gov.au

Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia frances.hoyle@agric.wa.gov.au

The University of Adelaide glenn.mcdonald@adelaide.edu.au

Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries fiona.robertson@depi.vic.gov.au

Queensland University of Technology clemens.scheer@qut.edu.au

GreenCollar Consulting Solutions james.schultz@greencollar.com.au

Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry tim.smith@daff.qld.gov.au

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Soil organic matter is essential for biological, chemical and physical functions in soil and contains more
than 50 percent soil carbon. The National Soil Carbon Program aims to evaluate land use and management
practices which leads to an increase in, or a reduction in losses of organic carbon stored in soil for building
resilience to Australian landscapes and restoring the productivity of the Australian lands. This program
is funded by the commonwealth government under Filling the Research Gap initiative following the Soil
Carbon Research Program (SCaRP).
National Soil Carbon Program (NSCP) objectives include:
1. Develop understanding on (i) the potential role of perennial vegetation in the management of soil
carbon; (ii) the potential of organic amendments to build soil carbon and the effect on GHG balance;
(iii) improved methodologies for measuring soil carbon and its components; and (iv) the effect of crop,
pasture and forestry management practices on increasing soil carbon.
2. Contribute to CFI methodologies for carbon offsets (GHG abatement), which requires rigorous scientific
evidence (peer-review publications in national/international journals).
3. Flow on national outcomes (in addition to GHG abatement) include (i) restoration of degraded Australian
landscapes from erosion, salinity, sodicity, acidity, soil structure loss, fertility depletion; (ii) soil health
improvement providing ecosystem services; (iii) food and fibre/products (energy) security; and (iv)
biodiversity for conservation of native flora and fauna and biological functions.
NSCP 15 projects grouped together under the following 4 themes:
Theme 1: Vegetation Management (regrowth, plantation forestry, reforestation)
Theme 2: Soil Amendments (compost, organics, biochar)
Theme 3: Improved Measurement (in situ VIS-NIR, NIR-MIR, temporal change, modelling)
Theme 4: Management Practices (N, perennial pastures, grazing, C inputs).
Expected outcomes:
Theme 1: Vegetation Management
1. The potential role of perennial vegetation for soil carbon increase:

By facilitating native forest regrowth, and C and N effects on productivity

Through environmental plantings on farm areas at low opportunity cost

Through rotational grazing of perennial pastures

Deep carbon storage on perennial pasture /forages

By reforestation of subtropical and tropical regions

2. Improve the scope and cost-effectiveness of CFI

3. Evaluate best land management practice
Theme 2: Soil Amendments
Quantify the potential for organic additions to soil to build soil carbon and the effect on GHG balance
Characterization of biochar/compost, organic & industrial, alone & in combination (COMBI-mix) and
assess the carbon, nutrient and GHG impacts in the field and crop yields
Development of rapid spectral technique to predict amendment degradability
Provide inputs to better model soil carbon for organic amendments
Theme 3: Improved Measurement
Temporal changes in soil carbon to improve modelling and low cost methods for measuring soil carbon
Temporal variability between seasons and years to improve modelling
Relationship between MIR and NIR estimates of Soil C and fractions
in situ VIS-NIR spectrometry and NDVI for application in CFI methodologies
Theme 4: Management Practices
The effect of crop, pasture and forestry management practices on soil carbon leads to:
Improved understanding of management practices which may increase soil organic matter and carbon
Improved understanding of relationships between soil organic matter, soil carbon and carbon fractions, C
stability, soil structure, N supply and productivity
Improved understanding of soil carbon in alkaline soils and gypsum and legume amendments to increase
soil C in these soils
Rotational grazing in semi-arid rangelands and fate of aboveground C inputs
Validate models and make predictions of soil C change
Program Highlights:
Quality Assurance
NSCP projects have adopted appropriate soil sampling designs for rangelands, environmental plantings
and reforestation. Soil analysis for total organic carbon is carried out at the Australasian Soil and Plant
Analysis Council (ASPAC) certified laboratories.
All projects used nationally calibrated mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) laboratories for estimating soil
organic carbon fractions, particulate organic carbon (POC), humus organic carbon (HOC), and resistant
organic carbon (ROC) in soil samples.
A number of projects are evaluating the biological significance of these fractions as well as light and
heavy fractions in soils under difference land uses, and dissolved organic carbon in alkaline soils.
Theme 1: Vegetation Management
Soil sampling protocols for forestry/plantation projects have been developed and implemented.
Significant advances have been made in vis-NIR spectroscopy by calibrating against standard methods
and MIR, and its applications to on-the-go in situ field estimations of soil organic carbon for extensive
landscapes such as rangelands.

 Assessment of spatial variability in stocks of surface soil carbon and on-the-go in situ field estimations of
soil organic carbon for rangelands and reforestation has been encouraging.
Improved understanding of key site and climatic factors leading to changes in soil carbon following
reforestation, and utilisation of this understanding to calibrate the FullCAM-RothC modelling framework
for predicting sequestration of soil carbon.
Theme 2: Soil Amendments
The organic amendments, including compost and biochar (COMBI) for soil carbon sequestration, nutrient
availability and supply as well as increasing crop yields is showing promise in the field.
The aryl content of organic amendments assessed by nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR)
spectroscopy is positively associated with the slow turnover pool (for carbon sequestration) and
negatively associated with the fast turnover pool of carbon (for nutrient turnover / supply) in the organic
amendments.
Rapid assessment of organic amendments using MIR and NIR spectroscopy for their relative
biodegradability and nutrient release is promising.
Theme 3: Improved Measurements
Seasonal variability of soil carbon stocks indicates higher carbon at the highest plant growth at a number
of sites.
Detecting the quantitative changes in soil carbon stocks over 5 years depends on land use change,
vegetation and farming system, soil type and climate during the monitoring period.
Theme 4: Management Practices
Further to the SCaRP work (Soil Research Special Issue, 2013) NSCP projects are evaluating the role
of perennial pastures and forage plants, crop-pasture rotations including nutrient additions, and fate of
placement of carbon inputs and organic amendments for increasing carbon and retaining carbon in soil.
Assessing potential benefits in increasing soil carbon from land use change, it is becoming apparent that
previous land use history must be known. For example, long-term cropping may lead to depletion of plant
nutrients which may limit the full benefits from land use change and therefore it needs to be addressed.
Nitrogen addition with carbon inputs to soil initially increases CO2 emissions but slows down longer-term
emissions, potentially leading to increased carbon sequestration.
Increasing soil carbon, accounting for and managing GHG balance, maintaining productivity and
restoring landscapes becomes the key aspect of CFI carbon-offset methodologies.
Modelling soil carbon dynamics
Simulations of the NSCP data sets and the existing data are being utilised in APSIM, Century and
FullCAM models to explore scenarios under different management practices, soil types, and current
and future climates to sequester carbon in soil and /or reduce future loss of carbon from soil to the
atmosphere.
The legacy dataset and that from the long-term experiments are modelled in APSIM, RothC, Century and
FullCAM models.
Summary:
Quantified potential for cropping, crop-pasture, pasture, pasture-plantations, afforestation and
reforestation systems, and amendments to increase the storage or reduce loss of carbon in soil.
Evaluated variability over seasons, annual, decadal, and in heterogeneous landscapes towards developing
protocols for quantifying soil carbon stocks.
Modelling of soil carbon datasets to extend soil carbon dynamics across space (regions) and time (year to
century or longer).

 Development of cost-effective CFI methodology for soil carbon.

Restoration of landscape functions, productivity and food, fibre and ensure energy security.
In summary, NSCP projects are contributing to the development of Soil Carbon Methodology for sampling,
environmental plantings, native forest regrowth and reforestation, rapid and cost-effective measurements
for soil carbon, carbon as a component of soil organic matter for restoration of landscapes, improving
environment, soil quality and soil fertility, and the productivity of food, fibre and energy from land.
Conclusions:
Improved understanding of managed ecosystems and management practices to increase soil carbon and
carbon fractions
Cost-effective measurement of soil carbon and carbon fractions, including modelling of soil carbon using
FullCAM and other appropriate models
Soil carbon methodology for CFI and carbon offsets
Soil carbon, nitrogen and soil organic matter for soil resilience and productivity
References
Soil Research Special Issue (2013). Soil carbon in Australias agricultural soils. Soil Research 51, 561-780.

Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the scientists and technical officers in the National Soil Carbon Program projects for their
contribution to project activities and sample analysis in analytical laboratories.

Projects under the National Soil Carbon Program (NSCP) are
supported by funding from the Australian Government
Department of Agriculture.

Program lead:

Project leads: