1. Kearney Foundation of Soil Science
Soil Carbon and California Terrestrial Ecosystems
Director: Kate Scow
UC Davis

2. Martin Theodore Kearney’s endowment
Kearney Foundation of Soil
Science established 1951.
5-year missions address public concerns in CA and support research in soils, plant nutrition and water science

3. SOIL CARBON CYCLE

4. 2001-2006: Soil Carbon and California Terrestrial Ecosystems
Understand mechanisms and processes governing storage and flow of carbon in soils of CA's diverse ecosystems;
Quantify impacts of inputs of water, nutrients, and pollutants, as well as physical disturbance, on storage, transformations and transport of carbon in soils;
Assess roles of soils in emissions and consumption of greenhouse gases,
Identify and analyze strategies and policy options for soil carbon management

5. Projects Funded: 25 “traditional” research projects across UC campuses
3 projects funded in special call for research on soil carbon in joint California Dept of Food & Agriculture Specialty Crops/Kearney Foundation
9 graduate fellowships in soil carbon

6. Kearney Sponsored Workshop on Soil Carbon Sequestration: Interface Between Science and Policy (Sept 22, 23, 2003)
1. What are on-going efforts in the science and policy of C sequestration in Europe, Canada and US?
How does soil science, resource economics and policy analysis interact in developing policy on C sequestration?
2. What are on-going efforts in climate change assessment and mitigation in the State of California? Estimation of C sequestration potential in CA soils and other reservoirs.
3. Presentation of Kearney-funded research on soil carbon in California terrestrial ecosystems.

7. Soil Carbon Sequestration; history and projections

8. MECHANISMS FOR ENHANCING SOIL CARBON SEQUESTRATION
INCREASE CROP INPUTS OF C BY HIGHER YIELDS OR LESS FALLOW PERIODS
REDUCE C LOSS
BY REDUCED TILLAGE
PROMOTE MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES WITH HIGHER C CONTENT
GROW CROPS THAT SEQUESTER MORE C, GROW COVER CROPS, LEAVE MORE STUBBLE
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY OF MARGINAL LANDS

9. Estimated rates of C sequestration in soil within US:
Tg C in croplands (Lal et al. 1998)
30-90 Tg C in grazing lands (Follett et al. 2001)
Assumes widespread adoption of improved management practices.
Does not account for changes in other biogenic greenhouse gases (nitrous oxide and methane) that may be by-products of management changes.  
THUS C sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems can account for about 6.4% of emissions (based on 5000 Tg C per yr in 1990).
Management-induced C sequestration in soil is only a temporary and partial solution to the greenhouse gas problem.

10. Other benefits of increased soil carbon

11. Projects on soil carbon sequestration
Scoping study in joint CEC/Kearney/ CDFA project.
Upcoming call for proposals from joint CEC/Kearney/CDFA to conduct pilot study to estimate carbon sequestration potential study in CA agricultural county.

12. William Salas1, Marc Los Huertos2 and Changsheng Li3
SCOPING STUDY: County scale assessment of carbon sequestration and trace gas emission from California croplands
William Salas1, Marc Los Huertos2 and Changsheng Li3
1Applied GeoSolutions, LLC, 10 Newmarket Road, Durham, NH, 03824
2Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, University of California Santa Cruz
3 Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824

14. Soil carbon content

15. Scaling Up from Site to Regions
Soil carbon content

16. Soils NRCS STATSGO Soils data DWR crop area mask
Derived area weighted statistics of range (min, max) in SOC, pH,
texture (%clay),
and bulk density
by county

18. County Agricultural Data
Various Sources of California data: County Commissioners Reports, FRAP (Fire Resource & Assessment Program, CDF), NASS, DWR
Used DWR mid-1990s data:
Sub-county spatial resolution
Based on Aerial Photos coupled with field surveys
Total crop area: 38,344km2

19. GIS Database

20. Next Steps Fertilizer: use different application rates across regions
Soils: Use crop class specific soils data at the county scale. Merge DWR and STATSGO
Validation analyses for California. Need to collect existing data.
Long-term SOC changes.
N2O data
CH4 from rice
Evaluate scenarios for C sequestration: cover crops, conservation tillage, no till, climate change, …
Run 20 and 40 year scenarios to examine C sequestration capacity and net GWP (N2O offsets)

21. EXAMPLE OF OTHER KEARNEY FUNDED RESEARCH
1. Stabilization of organic matter in soils *Litter quality (e.g., C/N, tannins, lignin, etc.) in regulating organic matter turnover *Litter diversity in affecting microbial function and soil C dynamic *Pedogenic factors in regulating soil carbon storage *Carbonate chemistry as a source/sink of carbon in soils
2. Transformation of trace gas in soils *Microbial processes on the dynamics of trace gas formation *Factors affecting trace gas fluxes between the atmosphere and soil
3. Impacts of management *Effect of management practices (N fertilization, irrigation, minimum tillage, wetland drainage) on carbon storage and trace gas dynamics *Soil carbon sequestration effects on fertilizer use efficiency *Role of soil carbon in maintaining surface and subsurface water quality *Development of water storage strategies through enhanced soil structure and water penetration

22. 4. Scaling of research results to regional and global scales
*Soil carbon and trace gas dynamics on the small watershed scale ( hectares) *Hydrologic conditions on soil carbon and trace gas dynamics *Landscape scale evaluation of global climate change and it relationship to soil organic matter storage and trace gases dynamics
5. Policy and Economics
*Regional and global policy considerations to maintain environmental quality *Economic and policy analysis of agricultural productivity and sustainability