Soil Carbon Check

Soil is a powerful tool. It stores more than three times the amount of CO₂ compared to the air, forests and other vegetation. Farmers and growers hold the key to this. Tilling the soil less often or sowing green manures are measures they can take to improve the carbon storage. The Soil Carbon Check offers insight in how much carbon is stored, in the quality of the soil carbon and how to improve the soil carbon content. 

Soils have a high potential for storing carbon and can therefore contribute to mitigating climate change. On a global scale, about 1.5 * 1015 kg of soil organic carbon (SOC) is stored in the upper meter of the soil, which is about three times the amount of carbon in the aboveground biomass and twice the amount of carbon as there is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The more carbon in soil, the less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Importance of organic matter

Besides the impact on the climate, carbon sequestration has important advantages for farming systems. Organic matter plays an important role in soils; it has an effect on physical (e.g. soil workability, water holding capacity, root penetrability), chemical (e.g. potassium-, calcium-, and magnesium binding capacity) and biological (e.g. soil biodiversity, disease suppression, nitrogen and sulphur mineralization) components. Not all organic material applied to the soil will be retained. In mineral soils, organic matter decomposes at a rate of around 2% per year on average. In practice, this is dependent on place and time and carrying out measurements is the only way to be certain of the actual amount of carbon in the soil.

Analysis frequency

Soil Carbon Check is a unique soil test that provides insight into the carbon contents of the soil. It also tracks the development of soil organic carbon over time, and therefore the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. It is recommended to use the Soil Carbon Check every year so that it is possible to display the significance of an increase in soil organic carbon. Soil Carbon Check uses an analysis technique called near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which is quick, economical and environmentally sustainable.

Improve carbon content

Most farming systems have the potential to increase soil organic carbon and improve their soils. How this should be done, varies per farm. The concept is simple: plants photosynthesize and capture carbon dioxide in organic material, i.e., leaves, stems, fruits and roots. All non-harvested biomass can theoretically become soil organic matter. However, farming systems are complex and therefore a suitable set of solutions should be selected. Reducing tillage, sowing green manures, agroforestry, permaculture, crop selection / rotation and application of manure / compost are a handful of possibilities. The online tool Carbon Calculator provides insight into how measurements taken on the farm will affect soil organic carbon, helping to optimize the farming system.