Soil Carbon Benchmarking 2020-21

2020 - 2021

Research organisaton
Funding source

Trial details

Researcher(s) N/A
Year(s) 2020 - 2021
Contributor Agriculture Kangaroo Island Incorporated
Trial location(s) Kangaroo Island, SA
Soil Carbon Benchmarking 2020-21 locations
Aims

Ten paired monitoring sites were selected to measure soil carbon to 50 cm at strategic locations across the Island with consideration of rainfall, soil type and land use (perennial pasture and continuous no-till stubble retention cropping) compared to annual pasture. Common soil carbon tests were analysed to establish guides for the soils in the region.

Key messages

• Twenty soils monitoring sites were established on a selection of rainfall, soil type and management systems on the agricultural soils of Kangaroo Island.
• Soil organic carbon (Walkley and Black method), total carbon (Dumas method) and pH (calcium chloride) were analysed for depths 0-5, 5-10, 10-30 and 30-50 cm.
• There was a good relationship between organic carbonWB and total carbonD for the results on Kangaroo Island. A multiplication factor of 1.12 can be used to estimate total carbonD from organic carbonWB.
• There was a strong positive relationship between carbon stock, rainfall and soil type.
o There appears to be a sharp increase in carbon stock at rainfall > 600 mm.
o Sand over clay soil type had lowest carbon stock and ironstone soil type the highest.
• Management system had a variable effect on carbon.
• There are inconsistencies in carbon stock for the sites depending on which analytical test was used organic carbonWB and total carbonD. This requires further investigation.

Lead research organisation N/A
Host research organisation N/A
Trial funding source Australian Government
Related program N/A
Acknowledgments

Funding/Sponsors
KI Landscape Board
KI farmers who provided sites for monitoring


Other trial partners Not specified
Download the trial report to view additional trial information

Method

Crop type None: No crop specified
Treatment type(s)
  • Soil Properties: Type
Trial type Experimental
Trial design Unknown

Kangaroo Island 2020

Sow date Not applicable
Harvest date Not applicable
Plot size Not specified
Plot replication Not specified

Kangaroo Island 2021

Sow date Not specified
Harvest date Not specified
Plot size Not specified
Plot replication Not specified
Download the trial report to view additional method/treatment information
Trial source data and summary not available
Check the trial report PDF for trial results.
Observed trial site soil information
Trial site soil testing
Not specified
Soil conditions
Trial site Soil texture
Kangaroo Island, SA Not specified
Derived trial site soil information
National soil grid Source: CSIRO/TERN
NOTE: National Soil Grid data is aggregated information for background information on the wider area
Actual soil values can vary significantly in a small area and the trial soil tests are the most relevant data where available

Soil properties

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Climate

Derived climate information

No observed climate data available for this trial.
Derived climate data is determined from trial site location and national weather sources.

Kangaroo Island SA

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Some data on this site is sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology

SILO weather estimates sourced from https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/silo/
Jeffrey, S.J., Carter, J.O., Moodie, K.B. and Beswick, A.R. (2001). Using spatial interpolation to construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data , Environmental Modelling and Software, Vol 16/4, pp 309-330. DOI: 10.1016/S1364-8152(01)00008-1.

Trial report and links

2020 trial report



Trial last modified: 03-02-2023 15:02pm AEST