Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Assessment of Labile Organic Carbon in Soil Using Sequential Fumigation Incubation Procedures
Published on: October 29, 2016
A simple soil organic-matter model for biomass data assimilation in community-level carbon contracts
P C S Traoré1, W M Bostick, J W Jones
1International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, P.O. Box 320, Bamako, Mali. p.s.traore@cgiar.org
Abstract:
Soil carbon (C) sequestration has been proposed as a transitional win-win strategy to help replenish organic-matter content in depleted agricultural soils and counter increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases. Data assimilation and remote sensing can reduce uncertainty in sequestered C mass estimates, but simple soil organic carbon (SOC) models are required to make operational predictions of tradeable amounts over large, heterogenous areas. Our study compared the performance of RothC26.3 and a reduced compartmental model on an 11-year fertilizer trial in subhumid West Africa. Root mean square error (RMSE) differences of 0.05 Mg C/ha between models on total SOC predictions suggest that for contractual purposes, SOC dynamics can be simulated by a two-pool structure with labile and stable components. Faster (seasonal) and slower (semicentennial and beyond) rates can be approximated by constants as instantaneous and infinite decay. In these systems, simulations indicate that cereal residue incorporation holds most potential for mitigation of transient C loss associated with recent land conversion to agriculture.
More Related Videos
09:38Single-throughput Complementary High-resolution Analytical Techniques for Characterizing Complex Natural Organic Matter Mixtures
Published on: January 7, 2019
09:44Use of Principal Components for Scaling Up Topographic Models to Map Soil Redistribution and Soil Organic Carbon
Published on: October 16, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Soil Microbial Ecology
The Soil Ecosystem
Bioremediation
What are Biogeochemical Cycles?
The Carbon Cycle
Microbes and the Carbon Cycle