Soils of old growth forests are NOT necessarily at steady state. Gaines in soil organic carbon stocks (~30%) were are seen in one southern China preserve from 1979 to 2003. Zhou etal 2006 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1130168 #SoilCarbon #SoilPractices #SoilSampleDesign #SciLit

Soil carbon estimates associated with #agricultural practice shifts need a portfolio approach to measurement, monitoring, and verification. But it is not a hopeless case and deeper data (on sample design, practice description, etc) can help. Bradford et al 2023 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706123003968 looked at high density (0.1 ha sample-1) sample collections from 45 fields to support power analysis for #SoilCarbon shift detection. #SoilBGC #DataScience #SoilSampleDesign #SciLit