A Roadmap for Quantifying Soil Organic Carbon Change as an Ecosystem Service on Grasslands and Pastures

Posted by: EcoServices Network 4 years, 1 month ago

Although grasslands occupy nearly half of the land used for agriculture in Canada, the ability to confidently, reliably, and practically estimate changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) under grazing and forage management practices is a gap in Canadian science.

To help address this gap, a team led by Dr. Marian Webber, working with Viresco Solutions Ltd., developed a roadmap report to assist developers in the choice of approaches that quantify SOC as a measurable ecosystem good or service (EGS) from Canadian grazing and forage lands. The roadmap was developed with significant stakeholder consultation and feedback from two Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meetings and a broader stakeholder workshop including stakeholders from academia, government, private-sector, environmental market experts and industry groups.

The ultimate objective (beyond the scope of this report) is to be able to build a system that will quantify the impact of grassland management on SOC to enable SOC to be established as a quantifiable and transactable EGS that will thereby encourage increased adoption of beneficial management practices (BMPs) to increase those EGS.

Read the report here: A Roadmap for Quantifying Soil Organic Carbon Change as an Ecosystem Service on Grasslands and Pastures