Brief description
Soil is a huge carbon (C) reservoir, but where and how much extra C can be stored is unknown. Here, using 5089 observations, we estimated that the uppermost 30 cm of Australian soil holds 13 Gt (10–18 Gt) of mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC). Using a frontier line analyses, described in Viscarra Rossel et al. (2023), we estimated the maximum amounts of MAOC that Australian soils could store in their current environments, and calculated the MAOC deficit, or C sequestration potential. We propagated the uncertainties from the frontier fitting and mapped the estimates of these values over Australia using machine learning and kriging with external drift (KED). The maps show regions where the soil is more in MAOC deficit and has greater sequestration potential. The modelling shows that the variation over the whole continent is determined mainly by climate, linked to vegetation, and soil mineralogy. We find that the MAOC deficit in Australian soil is 40 Gt (25–60 Gt). The deficit in the vast rangelands is 20.84 Gt (13.97–29.70 Gt) and the deficit in cropping soil is 1.63 Gt (1.12–2.32 Gt). Our findings suggest that the C sequestration potential of Australian soil is limited by climate.
Lineage
See Method Documentation section under Additional information below.
Notes
CreditWe at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
The new information on the C sequestration potential of Australian soils help to highlight priority regions for soil management.
Data Quality Assessment Scope
local :
dataset
Soil sample analytical data modelled and validated using statistical validation methods that are described in the publication linked to the dataset.
Viscarra Rossel, R. A., Webster, R., Zhang, M., Shen, Z., Dixon, K., Wang, Y.-P., & Walden, L. (2023). How much organic carbon could the soil store? The carbon sequestration potential of Australian soil. Global Change Biology, 30, e17053. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17053
doi :
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.17053
Data Quality Assessment Result
local :
Quality Result
Lin's concordance correlation coefficient for the spatial models used to create the maps range between 0.66 to 0.85.
Created: 2023-05-01
Issued: 2024-08-21
Modified: 2024-09-23
Data time period: 2000-01-01 to 2020-01-01
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Point-of-truth metadata URL
How much organic carbon could the soil store? The carbon sequestration potential of Australian soil
- URI : geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/f3fd2a87-b12e-4459-815f-2ec199387490
- global : f3fd2a87-b12e-4459-815f-2ec199387490
