On-farm monitoring of subsurface carbon sequestration in regenerative agriculture

有记录表明，可能广泛采用的再生农业做法，如覆盖种植，有能力在国家一级促进净零排放目标，通常是通过植物介导的活动将碳固存在土壤中。然而，在了解管理变化是否已经或将导致土壤中碳固存的增加方面存在方法上的挑战。我们的研究将开发技术和技术，使农场一级的监测和决策的植物介导的，可再生的解决方案，以实现碳封存的目标。具体而言，我们将推进现有的植物根系近地表和次地表成像技术，作为土壤碳输入的潜在来源，并在开发和校准新型电化学生物传感器方面迈出第一步，以跟踪碳输入的代谢物进入长期土壤碳库。我们将把我们的研究和发现与不同农民团体对再生实践和潜在的碳和土壤健康监测工具的反馈结合起来，并将其视为实现长期管理目标的重要性。我们的合作伙伴关系将加深相关性，并扩大我们的研究的潜在最终用途，通过i）通过知识转化和转让研讨会增加与农民的接触，ii）确保我们的方法在测量，监测和验证农场碳和土壤健康变化方面的实地行业应用具有可行性。我们的研究结果将提高农民量化土壤碳固存的短期和长期能力，这可以促进参与碳抵消计划，但更普遍的是，可以增强自下而上的能力，运行气候智能型农场运营。

Potential widespread adoption of regenerative agricultural practices, such as cover cropping, has documented capacity to contribute to net-zero emissions goals at the national level, often by sequestering carbon in soils through plant-mediated activity. However, there are methodological challenges in knowing if a management change has, or will result in, increased carbon sequestration in soil. Our research will develop technologies and techniques that can enable farm-level monitoring and decision making of plant-mediated, regenerative solutions for achieving carbon sequestration goals. Specifically, we will advance existing technologies of near-surface and sub-surface imaging of plant roots as potential sources of carbon inputs to soil, and make first steps in the development and calibration of novel electro-chemical bio-sensors to track metabolites of carbon inputs into longer-term pools of soil carbon. We will contextualize our research and findings with diverse farmer groups' feedback on regenerative practices and potential carbon and soil health monitoring tools, and perceived importance in achieving long-term management goals. Our partnerships will deepen the relevance and expand the potential end use of our research through i) increased reach with farmers through knowledge translation and transfer workshops and ii) in ensuring our approach has feasibility for on-the-ground industry application in measuring, monitoring, and verification of carbon and soil health changes on farms. Results from our research will increase the tangible near- and long-term capacity for farmers to quantify soil carbon sequestration - which can facilitate participation in carbon offsetting programs, but also more generally can bolster bottom-up capacity in running climate-smart farm operations.