Methods and Tools for Designing a Pilot Soil Carbon Sequestration Project

Soil C sequestration has been identified as a potential mitigation practice to help attenuate the rate of increase of atmospheric CO2, which is increasingly being demonstrated as having a major role in climate change. In anticipation of a global CO2 emissions permit trading system in which soil C sequestration is included, methodologies and tools for the design of soil C sequestration projects are reviewed. Aspects of direct sampling are discussed, particularly, those dealing with sampling design, sampling depth, soil bulk density, methods of C determination, and calculations using equivalent mass concepts. In addition, the role of simulation models and remote sensing techniques are discussed with regards to monitoring programs, extrapolation and auditing. The methods and tools discussed here are not meant to be prescriptive. They rather aim at serving the soil science community in developing methods and tools that are comparable and have the scientific rigor to make them acceptable in national and international trading mechanisms.