A University of Sydney professor is using “digital soil mapping” to help measure soil carbon content in the field and encourage farmers to adopt the government’s Carbon Farming Initiative.
There is a growing interest in “carbon farming” among forward-looking agricultural producers in the United States. Ideas range from promoting on-farm practices such as conservation tilling and livestock rotation to establishing USDA-managed “carbon banks” to facilitate the buying and selling of agricultural carbon credits.
Biochar offers several benefits as a soil amendment, including increased soil fertility, carbon sequestration, and water-holding capacity in nutrient-poor soils. In this study, soil samples with and without biochar additives were collected for two consecutive years from an experimental field plot to examine its effect on the microbial community structure and functions in sandy soils under peach-trees.
Maintaining soil organic matter is critical to tackling climate change because soil organic matter is rich in carbon. Soil carbon is also the keystone element controlling soil health, which enables soils to be resilient as droughts and intense rainfall events increasingly occur.