Background

Despite the attention given to soil organic carbon (SOC), current knowledge remains limited regarding SOC baselines and changes.

Accurate estimations of SOC baselines and changes are still missing for many countries and are associated with large uncertainties. Therefore, the detection of vulnerable hot spots for SOC losses and opportunities for SOC gains under both climate and land management changes are scarce.  

Estimates of global and regional SOC stocks do exist, but there is high variability in reported values among authors, caused by the diversity of data sources and methodologies. Due to environmental and anthropogenic factors, SOC measurements are highly variable in space and time, and data requirements would differ depending on the purpose of the analyses.

The recommended methods provided in the Measuring and modelling soil carbon stocks and stock changes in livestock production systems. Guidelines for assessment, published this year by the Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership, aim to align with the intended use and available data.

About the guidelines

These guidelines aim to give a harmonised, international approach for estimating SOC stock and stock changes in livestock production systems. The focus is on measuring SOC and monitoring change in SOC stocks in response to management practices in grasslands and rangelands.

The technical document presents measurement and modelling techniques for SOC assessment; a set of decision-trees are also given to guide the user to choose the most suitable method based on intended use and resources availability. A series of case studies are also given to illustrate the applications of the techniques and approaches described in the guidelines.

Due to the range of objectives and scales for SOC stock change studies, the intended uses of this document are wide, such as:

• Global or regional accounting for GHG emissions and removals from the land sector as a component of climate change accounting.
• Monitoring, reporting and verification obligations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• Analysis of the climate change impact of livestock products.
• Evaluation of the environmental impacts of grazing land management for animal agriculture.
• Assessment of the mitigation potential of agricultural practices at farm level, as well as at a regional and global scale.
• Implementing mitigation options in an emissions trading or other market mechanism where payments for SOC sequestration depend on accurate and verifiable quantification.
• Research into soil and biological processes affecting SOC stocks and dynamics.

Land use systems

These guidelines consider soils from all land use systems that directly support livestock production, which include lands with vegetation suitable for grazing or browsing use, predominantly composed of grasses, grass-like plants, forbs, or shrubs. These may be grasslands, savannas, steppes, wetlands, some woodland, some deserts, tundra, and certain forb and shrub communities, or cultivated pastures on converted land. Some of these land cover types may be extensively managed through fire and the control of livestock stocking, while others by practices such as plant species introduction, fertilization, mowing, and irrigation.

Other systems that support livestock production considered in scope for these guidelines include cropland producing forage that is mowed for hay or silage, or croplands that are producing other feed for livestock.

Attention is also given to the assessments of SOC after land use change to/from livestock systems.

Intended users

The set of methods and approaches recommended in these guidelines can be used by individual farmers or land managers, by those undertaking life cycle assessment of livestock products, policy makers, or regulators at local, regional or national scales.

 Learn more