Spectral mapping of soil organic carbon
(2021) Advances in measuring soil health — ISBN: [978-1786764263], published
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- Abstract
- Croplands have lost the majority of their soil organic carbon since the onset of agriculture (Sanderman et al., 2017). The main reasons for this loss are the reduced return of plant residues to the soil compared to forest and grassland systems as well as the increase in microbial activity resulting from the disturbance by tillage, harrowing, fertilization and harvesting (Chenu et al., 2019). Soil organic matter and its main component soil organic carbon (SOC) are essential for preserving a healthy soil and maintaining soil fertility. It is proposed that soil health is dependent on the maintenance of four major functions: carbon transformations; nutrient cycles; soil structure maintenance and the regulation of pests and diseases (Kibblewhite et al., 2008). A metaanalysis by Oldfield et al. (2019) showed that SOC content was related to yield potential of wheat and maize and that an increase in SOC concentrations up to region-specific targets can reduce reliance on nitrogen fertilizer and help close the yield gap. Moreover, Minasny et al. (2017) demonstrated the potential of atmospheric CO2 sequestration through increase in SOC stock of a range of agricultural soils along a global climate gradient. Unfortunately, high-resolution maps that indicate areas where SOC levels are critically low and where improved management options, such as cover crops, agroforestry no-till, could be most effective are scarce. Recent SOC maps at regional to global scale consist of rather coarse grid cells that are too coarse to represent heterogeneity at the field scale and are based on legacy data that is generally not up-to-date as collecting and analyzing new soil cores is expensive (Rogge et al., 2018). Apart from indicating zones with critically low SOC contents, SOC maps are particularly valuable for assessing the SOC variability in support of sample designs that are both representative for the region and minimize the number of sample points required (Conant and Paustian, 2002; de Gruijter et al., 2016)
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Van Wesemael, B. (2021). Spectral mapping of soil organic carbon. In Otten, W. (ed.) (ed.), Advances in measuring soil health (Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing). Otten, W. (ed.). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/224063