Currently writing a research proposal to carry out an experiment to test the benefits of No-Till soil management practices, particularly in relation to Soil Organic Carbon sequestration.
Can any experts confirm whether it will be possible to measure SOC sequestration over a 6 month period, or is more time required?
Also, any advice on how this can be measured would be extremely helpful, currently working my way through all of the relevant literature but would greatly appreciate speaking to someone who knows.
The ability to determine a signifcant ability to increase soil organic carbon is usually a long term proposition.
The greater ability to determine is based on accumulation which buidling over years but at a diminishing return over time.
Raw manuring and no till has an ability to raise 300 kg/ha C whereas cover crops can double or triple that.
None of these practices are mutually exclusive.
Stablized organic carbon can have more measureable and quicker effect such as compost and biochar.
The hay ley and pasturing systems can give measureable increases in some of the shortest times and forest agricultural systems can also be very powerful in this effort.
The bigger the sequestration the quicker its identification can be confirmed and accurately measured.
Paul Reed Hepperly Measuring SOC in no-till zone has several benefits including the sequestration potential and landuse specific impacts. Almost a decade ago, I did a comparative study of SOC among 'good-practice' agricultural lands, business as usual agricultural lands and nearby forest (no till zone) of the Nepal Himalaya. Here are the link of the papers:
1. Effects of Sustainable Soil Management Practices on Distribution of Soil Organic Carbon in Upland Agricultural Soils of Mid-hills of Nepal.
https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJST/article/view/7452
2. Effects of improved management and quality of farmyard manure on soil organic carbon contents in small-holder farming systems of the Middle Hills of Nepal
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17565529.2014.966045
Hope useful stuff.
Ngamindra
Dear Angie Mae Bruce as from my experience (My ex-research on carbon sequestration on virgin land), I can say that 6 months is too short for this experiment to get a significant result.
For estimation this review may be helpfulArticle Current and emerging methodologies for estimating carbon seq...
You can check my Ph.D thesis for details, available in krishikosh.egranth.ac.in
Thanks for the answers everyone. I am going to do a basic measurement of soil microbial biomass instead as I believe that's perhaps easier at this point, but I'm interesting in ongoing research into no-tillage. It has been reported that no-till works better alongside companion methods so this would be interesting to trial further.
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