Global climate change induced by green house gases is one of mankind's greatest challenges.  One of the most important of these gases is carbon dioxide.  In additional to improving efficiency, we may be required to develop techniques for sequestering carbon.  Commercially viable deep injection technologies for sequestering carbon do not exist yet but are widely discussed.  This technology will likely not work everywhere due to geologic constraints, but where it does work it will be very expensive.  

An alternative to geologic sequestration is to increase carbon in soil, a vast global reservoir of carbon. In fact, the soil has slightly more carbon than the both the atmosphere and terrestrial vegetation combined.   If soils were to sequester carbon, more must be know known.  

Carbon varies spatially in the landscape and carbon values tend to be greatest in the lower, more poorly drained areas in the landscape (Figure 1).  However, it is unknown whether the potential to sequester carbon also varies substantially across the landscape but it likely does.  By judiciously selecting only areas that have a high potential sequester; the costs of soil carbon sequestration will likely drop  substantially.    

One criticism of soil carbon sequestration has been that it will be difficult to monitor and measure carbon storage partly because carbon varies so greatly across landscapes.    Research is clearly needed to develop methods to accurately and economically measure and map carbon across landscapes.   Dr.  Mueller has expertise in geographic information systems (GIS) and terrain analysis.  He also has experience studying the impact of soil sampling density on map accuracy when using elevation derived terrain properties (e.g., slope, aspect, and curvature) to enhance the spatial predictions of soil carbon (see Mueller and Pierce, 2003 for details).  Dr. Mueller also has a tractor-mounted soil spectrometer that measures soil reflectance (350-2200 nm range, every 8 nm) to a 1-meter depth.  

Proposed Solution

We will conduct this study on 5 fields in Central Kentucky where we have detailed elevation data.  As part of Mr. N.J. Hamilton, MS thesis project, we will make detailed spectral measurements at a single depth with the Veris shank and measurements with depth using the Veris Probe.  We will also make measurements with the Gamma and Neutron probes.  For a number of these points, we will also sample these these fields for carbon at multiple depths and measure bulk density and soil moisture as well.  The moisture and density measurements will be used to calibrate teh Gamma and Neutron probes.  

• Mueller, T.G. (PI), T.S. Stombaugh, L. Wells, A.D. Karathanasis, and C.J. Matocha.  2007-208. Measuring soil properties with near-infrared spectral sensors. $75,000 (50%).
• Grove, J.H., C.D. Lee, R.L. McCulley, and T.G. Mueller (Contributor). 2008. Carbon offsets for Kentucky's fossil fuel resources from sustainable management of Kentucky's agricultural soils. Submitted to the Cabinet for Energy and Environment, Commonwealth of Kentucky in October (under consideration). 

• Mueller, T.G., and F.J. Pierce. 2003. Enhancing spatial estimates of soil carbon with terrain attributes. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 67: 258-267.