HWSD is a global soil dataset that provides 20 soil properties for two soil depths (0-30 cm and 30-100cm), including soil organic carbon pool. HWSD combines existing regional and national updates of soil information with the information contained within the FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World. Format is a GIS raster image file (1km x 1km resolution) linked to an attribute database in Microsoft Access.
FAO with IIASA, ISRIC-World Soil Information, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISSCAS), and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC)
Land managers are decision-makers who operate in a broader context that connect their agricultural and financial decisions. Any effort to improve the performance of agricultural soils through increasing levels of SOC requires a feasible and credible assessment of SOC stocks, which are affected by dynamic and complex soil processes and properties. This paper evaluates methods currently accepted to quantify and forecast soil organic carbon (SOC) that, when augmented and pulled together, could provide the basis for a new global soil information system.*
Kieth Paustian, Sarah Collier, Jeff Baldock, Rachel Burgess, Jeff Creque, et al.
2019
Carbon Management
*Adapted from the abstract & Key Messages
Excerpt from summary
In this paper we review methods and challenges of measuring SOC change directly in soils, before examining some recent novel developments that show promise for quantifying SOC. We describe how repeat soil surveys are used to estimate changes in SOC over time, and how long‐term experiments and space‐for‐time‐substitution sites can serve as sources of knowledge and can be used to test models, and as potential benchmark sites in global frameworks to estimate SOC change. We briefly consider models that can be used to simulate and project change in SOC and examine the MRV platforms for soil organic carbon change already in use in various countries/regions. In the final section, we bring together the various components described in this review, to describe a new vision for a global framework for MRV of soil organic carbon change, to support national and international initiatives seeking to effect change in the way we manage our soils.
Pete Smith, Jean‐Francois Soussana, Denis Angers, Louis Schipper, Claire Chenu, et al.
2019
Global Change Biology
The American Carbon Registry (ACR) has approved this GHG offset methodology for Grazing Land and Livestock Management (GLLM). This methodology is applicable to beef and dairy production across the globe. It ensures the “complete, consistent, transparent, accurate and conservative quantification of GHG emission reductions associated with a GLLM project”. It focuses on primary GHG sources, sinks and reservoirs (SSRs) impacted by beef and dairy production and provides accounting modules for each of the following components of beef and dairy production: enteric methane, manure methane, nitrous oxide from fertilizer use, fossil fuel emissions, and biotic sequestration in above- and below-ground biomass and soils. Current versions of this methodology are available on the webpage.
Tim Pearson, Nancy Harris, Nicholas Martin, Lauren Nichols, Jonathan Winsten, Jenn Holthaus, and Gustavo Cruz
2014
Winrock International & The American Carbon Registry
This methodology was developed by Terra Global Capital with support from the Environmental Defense Fund, Silver Lab at the University of California Berkeley, and the Marin Carbon Project. The methodology accounts for the carbon sequestration and avoided GHG emissions related to compost additions to grazed grasslands. It provides a quantification framework for emissions reductions from avoiding anaerobic decomposition of organic material used in compost production. This directly increases soil organic carbon (SOC) content and indirectly increases SOC sequestration through enhanced plant growth in amended fields. Apart from the economic benefit of increased forage production, applying compost to grazed grasslands has environmental co-benefits such as improved soil quality, decreased risk of erosion from water and wind by increasing soil aggregation, and increasing nutrient and water availability for forage vegetation.
Van R. Haden, Steven De Gryze, Nora Nelson
2014
Terra Global Capital & The American Carbon Registry
The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, CFI) Act 2011 allows farmers and landholders to earn carbon credits by sequestering soil carbon (C) in pasture, crops or mixed farming system soils. GHG abatement is achieved either by reducing or avoiding emissions or by removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soil or vegetation. This method introduces management practices to increase C soil storage and account for the amount of C stored. Project management activities included in this methodology include:
- sustainable intensification that required management actions (nutrient management, new irrigation, managing soil acidity or pasture renovation);
- stubble retention, crop residue previously removed is retained in the field; and
- conversion of cropland to pasture (land continuously used for cropping is permanently converted to pasture).
The benefits of increasing soil carbon might include higher crop yields, better pasture, reduced erosion, and improved soil health.
Australia: Department of the Environment and Energy
2015
This method provides landholders and businesses the opportunity to earn Australian Carbon Credits (ACC) by changing their land management practices to increase soil organic carbon. It includes instructions for undertaking projects and estimating the resulting ACC abatement. It also allows for some flexibility of land management practices so that it can be customized to the specific region and farm. The benefits from increasing soil carbon in pasture, croplands, horticultural or mixed farming system soils might increase crop yields, increase pasture quality, reduced soil erosion and improved soil health.
Australia: Department of the Environment and Energy
2018
This methodology was developed by Gold Standard for accounting for changes in soil organic carbon (SOC). It is applicable to projects where conservation tillage methods are introduced to project areas previously under conventional management. This includes forms of minimum or reduced impact tillage which causes less soil disturbance than conventional forms of tillage and where residue, mulch, or sod is left on the soil surface to protect soil and conserve moisture.
Gold Standard
2017
This methodology was developed by the BioCarbon Fund. It is a guide to quantifying the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the adoption of sustainable land management practices (SALM) aimed at enhancing above- and below-ground and soil-based carbon stocks of grass- and croplands. This methodology is applicable to projects that adopt new SALM practices in agricultural landscapes where soil organic carbon is at risk of decreasing over time or remain constant without changing the current management practices.
Verified Carbon Standard
2011
