Integrating stochastic models and in situ sampling for monitoring soil carbon sequestration

Integrating stochastic models and in situ sampling for monitoring soil carbon sequestration

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Article ID: iaor20091102
Country: United Kingdom
Volume: 94
Issue: 1
Start Page Number: 52
End Page Number: 62
Publication Date: Apr 2007
Journal: Agricultural Systems
Authors: , , , , ,
Keywords: statistics: sampling, stochastic processes, developing countries
Abstract:

Participation in carbon (C) markets could provide farmers in developing countries incentives for improving soil fertility. However carbon traders need assurances that contract levels of C are being achieved. Thus, methods are needed to monitor and verify soil C changes over time and space to determine whether target levels of C storage are being met. Because direct measurement over the large areas needed to sequester contract amounts of C in soil is not practical, other approaches are necessary. An integrated approach is described in which an Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) is used to assimilate in situ soil carbon measurements into a stochastic soil C model to estimate soil C changes over time and space. The approach takes into account errors in in situ measurements and uncertainties in the model to estimate mean and variance of soil C for each land unit within a larger land area. The approach requires initial estimates of soil C over space along with uncertainties in these estimates. Model predictions are made to estimate soil C for the next year, in situ soil C measurements update these predictions using maximum likelihood methods, and the spatial pattern of soil C mean, variance, and covariance thus evolve over time.

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