Presented by:
Dr Jordan Goodrich
Bioeconomy Science Institute 

Hosted by:
Dr Pierre Roudier
Bioeconomy Science Institute 

Soils store more carbon globally than terrestrial vegetation and the atmosphere combined, so even small changes across large areas can have a material effect on net greenhouse gas emissions. Under Paris Agreement reporting, New Zealand must quantify soil carbon stock changes from land-use transitions in line with IPCC guidance. Our current inventory method applies the same stock-change factors to each land-use transition regardless of soil type or climate zone, resulting in high uncertainties, limiting our ability to resolve spatial patterns of change. Here we will provide an overview of a four-year project aiming to improve the soil carbon inventory system. Key improvements included expanding the measurement database from 2050 to about 4800 sites via targeted measurements in under-represented areas (e.g. wetlands) and incorporation of other existing datasets, updating the empirical soil carbon model underpinning the stock change estimates, and establishing a repeatable code-based processing and quality-control pipeline.

The revised model provides distinct estimates of soil carbon stocks for each land use, soil order, and climate zone combination. With additional refinement to the stock calculation approaches and spatial inputs, these updates strengthen national soil carbon inventory reporting and provide a more granular basis for assessing stock changes through time.

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