Just Accepted
This article has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication. It is in production and has not been edited, so may differ from the final published form.
A systematic approach to soil carbon inventory on rangelands
Abstract
Significant and lasting soil carbon change in rangeland ecosystems requires ecological state change. Although within-ecological state soil carbon dynamics can occur, they are driven primarily by short-term fluctuations in weather, specifically precipitation, and are insufficient to provide reliable estimates of change to support policy and management decisions. Changes in grazing management typically do not result in ecological state change, apart from the vegetation structural change associated with long-term overgrazing. Dominant vegetation attributes such as shrub-to-grass ratios, cool season vs warm season plant production, and annual vs perennial growth habit define ecological state and are detectable accurately and cost-effectively using existing remote sensing technology. These vegetation attributes, along with stationary soil properties allow for mapping at scales consistent with a variety of policy and management decisions and provide a logical basis for developing a credible sampling framework for verification. Furthermore, state-transition models of ecological state dynamics are designed to provide information that can be used to support inventories and management decisions for soil carbon and other ecosystem services.
RJ24017 Accepted 07 July 2024
© Australian Rangeland Society 2024
