This presentation was presented during the 2 Parallel session on Theme 1, Monitoring, mapping, measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) of SOC, of the Global Symposium on Soil Organic Carbon that took place in Rome 21-23 March 2017. The presentation was made by Mr. Budiman Minasmy from University of Sidney - Australia, in FAO Hq, Rome

1. Soil Carbon
4 per 1000
© Anne Richer-de-Forges

2. Budiman Minasny1, Alex. B. McBratney1*, Brendan P. Malone1, Denis A. Angers2,
Dominique Arrouays3, Adam Chambers4, Vincent Chaplot5, Zueng-Sang Chen6, Kun Cheng7,
Bhabani S. Das8, Damien J. Field1, Alessandro Gimona9, Carolyn Hedley10, Suk Young Hong11,
Biswapati Mandal12, Ben P. Marchant13, Manuel Martin3, Brian G. McConkey2,
Vera Leatitia Mulder14, Sharon O’Rourke15, Anne C. Richer-de-Forges3, Inakwu Odeh1,
José Padarian1, Keith Paustian16,Genxing Pan7, Laura Poggio9, Igor Savin17, Vladimir Stolbovoy18,
Uta Stockmann1, Yiyi Sulaeman19, Chun-Chih Tsui6, Tor-Gunnar Vågen20,
Bas van Wesemael21, Leigh Winowiecki20
1 Sydney Institute of Agriculture, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 2 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada. 3 INRA Orléans, InfoSol Unit,
Orléans, France. 4 USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, USA. 5 Laboratoire d’Océanographie et du Climat, Paris, France. 6 Department of Agricultural
Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, China Taiwan. 7 Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
8 Agricultural & Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India 9 The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, AB15 8QH, Aberdeen,
Scotland (UK) 10 Landcare Research, New Zealand. 11 Rural Development Administration (RDA), Republic of Korea. 12 Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West
Bengal, India 13 British Geological Survey, Keyworth, UK. 14 Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium. 15 University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland. 16
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA. 17 People’s Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russia. 18 V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, Moscow,
Russia. 19 Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development, Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, Bogor, Indonesia. 20 World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF),
Nairobi, Kenya. 21 Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

3. Geoderma, 292 (2017) 59-86

4. 2400
= 4‰
Organic carbon stored
in the soil globally
(up to 2 m)
Amount of
C stock
increase
needed to
offset CO2
emission
Annual Global
CO2 emissions
from fossil fuels
8.9 giga tonne C
2400
giga
tonne C
8.9
2400
Adapted from Ademe, 2015

5. Atmosphere: 830
Vegetation: 550+100
Soils 40 cm: 860+ ?
Soils 2-m: 2400 + ?
Stocks Fluxes
9,8 + 0,98.9/2400 = 0.0037
0,004x860 = 3.44 In Billion ton
Adapted from Le
Queré et al.2014
Theory

6. Global OC stock (0-30cm, t.ha-1)
Stockmann et al. 2015

7. New Zealand
Chile
South Africa
Australia
Indonesia
Tanzania
Kenya
Nigeria
Taiwan
India Korea
Mainland China
United States
France
England & Wales
Belgium
Russia
Scotland
Ireland
Canada
OC stock in 20 regions of the world
Minasny et al. 2017

8. Country/
Region
Total Soil
organic C
stock 0-30
cm
(Gt)
Agricultura
l Area
(Mha)
Soil C
stock in
Agricultur
al land
(Gt)
Potentials Challenges
New
Zealand
2.66 15.1 1.59 Improved management of
grasslands; increased root
inputs of C; targeting
specific soil types (e.g.
allophanic soils), and/or
specific landscape
positions; establishment
and reestablishment of
wetlands.
Inherently high C
soils, C loss in
drained peats,
overgrazing, soil
erosion in upland
areas.
Chile 5.52 3.2 0.14 Afforesting degraded
areas and conserving
native forest and
peatlands
Peatland
conversion, limited
cropping areas
Minasny et al. 2017
Stocks and main regional
potentials and challenges
Chile
New Zealand

9. Country/
Region
Total Soil
organic C
stock 0-30 cm
(Gt)
Agricultural
Area (Mha)
Soil C stock in
Agricultural land (Gt)
Potentials Challenges
Australia 25 455 12.76 Large agricultural land
area, optimization of
crop rotations, and
retention of crop
residues, improved
grassland
management.
Lack of water, zero or
minimum tillage has
been implemented
almost 80% in the grain
cropping areas.
Nigeria 3.12 29 0.97 Use of legumes, fallow
periods, plant residues
retention,
afforestation
Lack of reliable data
Minasny et al. 2017
Stocks and main regional
potentials and challenges
Australia
Nigeria

10. Country/
Region
Total Soil
organic C
stock 0-30
cm
(Gt)
Agricultural
Area (Mha)
Soil C stock in
Agricultural land (Gt)
Potentials Challenges
France 3.56 30 1.95 Changes in land use
and adoption of best
agricultural practices
High soil sealing rate
by urbanisation and
infrastructures
Scotland Total: 1.16
Peats (up to
1 m) : 0.8
5.6 0.33 Reducing peatland
degradation and
agricultural expansion
A large area of
peatlands, expansion
of intensive agriculture
Minasny et al. 2017
Stocks and main regional
potentials and challenges
France
Scotland

11. Initial C stock (t C/ha) No. of years
Sequestrationrate(permille/year)
Sequestrationrate(permille/year)
Survey of practices and sequestration rates
50
40
30
20
10
0
50
40
30
20
10
0
4 4
Minasny et al. 2017

12. Land Managers/
Farmers
Practices
Minimum Tillage
Residue management
Improved Grazing
Crop rotations
For the benefits of:
• Increased Yield
• Soil Conditions
• C credits
Policy Makers
4 per mille
Kyoto Protocol
EU Soil Thematic Strategy?
Carbon Farming Initiative
Global Soil Parnership
Scientists
Measurements, sensing
Modelling
Digital soil mapping
Auditing C
SOC functioning
SOC Persistence
Climate
Change
Marketeers
C trading
Natural capital
Product supply chains
Facilitation
ComplianceInnovation
Confidence
Minasny et al. 2017

13. Summary
• We surveyed the soil carbon stock estimates and sequestration
potentials from 20 regions in the world.
• All regions show efforts and scopes for soil carbon sequestration
achieving the 4 per mille initiative.
• Under best management practices, 4 per mille or even higher
sequestration rates can be accomplished.
• High C sequestration rates (up to 10 per mille) can be achieved for
soils with low initial SOC stock (topsoil less than 30 t C ha−1), and at
the first twenty years after implementation of best management
practices.
• Agricultural soil carbon sequestration can be the solution for
mitigating climate change over the next ten to twenty years.

14. Thank you for your attention!
© Yves Le Bissonnais © Gis Sol © Anne Richer de Forges