Title:
The Importance of Quantifying Soil Carbon Storage at the Outset of Perennial Energy Crops: a Case Study
Author(s):
Ceotto, E.
Document(s):
Paper
Poster
Abstract:
A proper quantification of the soil carbon storage for perennial energy crop is often awkward. On the one hand, many years are required to observe substantial SOC accrual. On the other hand, in several cases multi-year experiments did not account for measurements of SOC collected at the outset. This usually leads the authors to compare the current SOC of a given perennial bioenergy crop, after several years from planting, with a nearby arable soil. A case study is here presented indicating that SOC might vary substantially even within the same field, where a perennial energy crop was just established. Hence, the assumption that SOC is fairly constant within a large area, and therefore, a nearby arable field can be taken as a baseline for assessing SOC change can be misleading. Our data suggest that it is advisable to measure SOC at the outset of the land use change, from arable soil to perennial crops or vice versa, and to repeat measurements across time exactly in the same plots.
Keywords:
land use change, soil carbon stock, within-field variability
Topic:
Biomass Policies, Markets and Sustainability
Subtopic:
Climate impacts of bioenergy
Event:
26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
4AV.6.12
Pages:
1418 - 1419
ISBN:
978-88-89407-18-9
Paper DOI:
10.5071/26thEUBCE2018-4AV.6.12
Price:
FREE
