Professor Alex. McBratney of Sydnet University delivers a stunning presentation on remote sensing and its promise of satellites 'spying' on plants to help save the world from climate crisis.

1. Towards More Efficient Soil Carbon Measurement and Monitoring Alex. M c Bratney Budiman Minasny Australian Centre for Precision Agriculture Faculty of Agriculture Food & Natural Resources

5. Carbon Storage (0-1 m) (kg m -2 ) 1 = kg m -2 = 10 tonnes/ha C Storage Edgeroi 0 - 5 5 - 6 6 - 7 7 - 8 8 - 9 9 - 10 10 - 11 11 - 12 12 - 14 14 - 16 16 - 18 18 - 20 0 - 5 5 - 6 6 - 7 7 - 8 8 - 9 9 - 10 10 - 11 11 - 12 12 - 14 14 - 16 16 - 18 18 - 20

10. A soil carbon accounting and trading scheme Independent auditor Carbon Emitter Landholder Government Buy C offset Certified Carbon Emission Reduction credits Offsetting company soil carbon sequestration contract Carbon emission target Audit soil C at beginning and end of sequestration contract soil carbon audit reporting trail soil C auditing TOOL (Research) Advisor of Land management system Management to optimise C sequestration Ongoing Land Management and Soil Research reporting reporting e.g. C-Lock

13. Variation of soil carbon with depth and across space

14. Changes over time Odeh et al. (2002)

15. And by the way ….. 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 No. years in irrigated cultivation Total C (dag kg -1 ) SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL

16. Changes over time General trend of total soil C storage decline ~0.6 kg m -2 in 20 years Over the whole area (427 ha) ~ 2700 ton C

24. Inelastic neutron scattering Wielopolski et al., 2008 Nondestructive System for Analyzing Carbon in the Soil. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 72, 1269-1277

28. Nowley Liverpool Plains 2008 stratified random sampling scheme 1 Crop 2 Drainage 1 Remnant 2 Crop 1 Pasture 2 Pasture 3 Crop 3 Drainage 3 Pasture 4 Crop 4 Remnant 5 Pasture 4 Pasture Sample location N

29. Total C kg/m 3 N 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35

30. STRATUM Total Carbon (kg/m 3 ) Stratum Area % Stratum Area (ha) Carbon (Mg = tonne) 4 cropping 13.4 34.5 247 33105 1 pasture 14.9 3.0 7 1086 4 pasture 15.1 1.7 169 25614 2 cropping 15.2 1.3 175 26532 2 drainage 16.6 16.0 10 1679 3 cropping 18.3 9.9 534 97741 3 drainage 18.4 10.9 46 8503 3 pasture 19.9 0.7 46 9212 1 cropping 20.5 4.5 12 2439 4 remnant veg 22.8 0.5 20 4459 1 remnant veg 23.0 11.3 70 16088 2 pasture 26.0 0.8 153 39821 5 pasture 27.1 5.1 79 21346 Total C to 1 m = 287 627 tonnes Total area of Nowley = 1570 ha

32. Carbon calculators Indicative Not accurate

35. Summary Independent auditor Carbon Emitter Landholder Government Buy C offset Certified Carbon Emission Reduction credits Offsetting company soil carbon sequestration contract Carbon emission target Audit soil C at beginning and end of sequestration contract soil carbon audit reporting trail soil C auditing TOOL (Research) Advisor of Land management system Management to optimise C sequestration Ongoing Land Management and Soil Research reporting reporting e.g. C-Lock

37. results N Total C kg/m3 1 - 16.60 16.61 – 20.48 20.49 – 22.99 23.00 – 27.05