C.J.E. (Nynke) Schulp: “The Carbon Copy of Human Activities“

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2 Dec 2009 16:00
Unit: Wageningen University
Location: Aula, building 362, Gen. Foulkesweg 1, Wageningen
Organisation: Wageningen University
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. A. Veldkamp (Soil Inventarisation and Land Evaluation)
Co Promotor: Dr.ir. P.H. Verburg

 Inventories of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and assessments of SOC dynamics are highly uncertain. Decreasing these uncertainties is essential for understanding national-scale greenhouse gas budgets and to get a better idea of potential future changes of SOC stocks. This thesis assesses the effects of land use, land use change and management on spatial variability and temporal dynamics of SOC. First, determinants for SOC variability were analysed and quantified in landscape-scale case studies. In forests, SOC stocks significantly differed between different tree species. In agricultural land, land use history explained much of the SOC variability, while the current land use had a small effect. This is a result of the slow response of SOC to land use changes: it takes many decades before land use significantly alters the SOC stock, while effects of past land use on SOC stocks are preserved for a long time.

Knowledge from the landscape-scale studies was used for upscaling SOC stocks to the Dutch sand area. Using readily available data on long-term land use, the error of the SOC map decreased by around 20% in almost two-third of the area compared to the state-of-the-art Dutch SOC map. The results can improve the Dutch greenhouse gas inventory and stress the importance of long-term land use for explaining SOC variability.
Title thesis : “The carbon copy of human activities. How long-term land use explains spatial variability of soil organic carbon stocks at multiple scales“
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