Soil carbon data and networks for resilience and mitigation of climate change

Soil carbon is a key component in carbon uptake, storage and sequestration in both managed and unmanaged terrestrial ecosystems. Increasing or restoring lost carbon in soils has a strong potential for mitigating the rise in carbon-containing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, as noted in the aspirational goal promoted by the international 4 per mil initiative. Yet understanding the most effective practices for preserving and increasing soil carbon stocks in any given soil type, production system, ecosystem and environmental conditions requires assessment and analysis if huge amounts of data over different spatial and temporal scales. Several international networks and initiatives have developed over the last several years to address these issues and many of these are working on connections and collaborations to move the science forward more efficiently. Two major international efforts are the Soil Carbon Sequestration Flagship of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA-SCS), and the International Soil Carbon Network (ISCN). These two efforts provide international connections to databases and research results and have established and continue to seek out collaborations and connections to a number of other projects and groups, including the Mexican Carbon Program, CarboNA, Coordination of International Research Cooperation on soil CArbon Sequestration in Agriculture (CIRCASA), the International Soil Modeling Network, and 4 per mil. This presentation will highlight some of the benefits and aspirations of these collaborations.