We argue that the term ‘potential’ soil organic carbon (SOC) storage is not quantifiable using historical and current empirical data. We propose a framework that defines an upper limit of ‘attainable’ SOC that varies with soil properties, environmental conditions and applied management practices. We conclude that continuous update of the derived attainable deficit values will be required when new datasets covering different or new management practices capable of improving the capture of carbon to soil become available.

Creating maps at the farm-scale is a promising approach to for an accurate understanding of true spatial variation for a range of agronomically important soil attributes. This study assessed the value of different proximal and remote sensing datasets to map topsoil and subsoil carbon, clay content, and pH across three different farms in Australia. Results showed that using a combination of remote and proximal sensing data resulted in the best models, followed by remote only, and then proximal only.

There is growing interest in soil carbon as a climate mitigation strategy by the private and public sectors in Australia and globally. There is a scarcity of evidence in Australia for two of the key eligible management activities farmers can implement as part of the Australian soil carbon method for carbon sequestration. Farm-level data with credible evidence of soil carbon improvement at depth is lacking due to lack of long-term studies and shallow soil sampling.

Legacy datasets enable a preliminary study for soil security assessment to inform future research questions. In this study, we identified potential surrogates and the use of potential indicators for the assessment of soil to support a certain role. This work is important and enables the use of potential indicators when the surrogate is not available or difficult to obtain.

Our short article reports an original dataset on soil solarisation from a grassland restoration project in Australia. Using this dataset, we demonstrate that sunlight may be a more influential driver of soil solarisation than previously thought. This result empowers land managers to better plan soil solarisation for restoration projects.