EnvironmentalResearchWeb reports that researchers in Kenya have developed a simple technique for mapping soil organic carbon that uses satellite imaging and gives a resolution of 30 m.
Conventional techniques for analysing soil organic carbon can be tedious, time consuming and sensitive to disturbances. Researchers from the World Agroforestry Centre and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, have developed a test that overcomes these issues.
The pair used soil data to train models to map soil organic carbon stocks. They found that soil erosion affects soil organic carbon stocks strongly in all sites and across different land-cover types. They also found that inherent soil properties such as sand content are often more important than climate effects alone in determining soil organic carbon dynamics.
The researchers hope to make their maps and models available to other researchers early next year, through a web-based platform that will enable researchers to choose an area of interest and run predictions for soil organic carbon stocks.
