"Spatial-temporal variability of organic carbon in soils of agroecosystems", report by Nikolai Borisovich Khitrov
On January 16th, a meeting of the agricultural sciences section took place in the "Green Parlor" of the Central House of Scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where Nikolai Borisovich Khitrov, the chief research fellow of the FRC V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, and a member of the Soil Group of the "RITM Carbon" consortium, presented a report on the topic "Spatial-temporal variability of organic carbon in soils of agroecosystems". During the meeting, they discussed the methodological basis and principles of carbon pools monitoring:
- What the minimum significant difference in organic carbon content for monitoring purposes is. Based on the analyzed literature and their own data, the value was found to be 0.2% Corg.
- Spatial variability exceeds the temporal, seasonal ones, and the method error. This is a crucial issue when creating an average sample because the final carbon content values depend on the sampling route.
- To obtain monitoring results with a 5-year interval, samples should be taken from layers of 5-10 cm thick (not more).
Later the results were summarized in a lecture with the same title, which took place at the Soil Science Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University for postgraduates on February 6th and 13th, 2024.
Scientists of the Federal Research Center V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute are participants in the consortium "RITM Carbon" in the work on the project "Russian Climate Monitoring System" (the key innovative project of national importance, KIP NI, supervised by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation).