Benchmarking soil carbon, soil properties and management between long term experimental sites and on-farm cotton industry sites

Land use change from forestry or pasture to arable cropping has greatly altered the terrestrial carbon balance resulting in a larger carbon deficit in soils. In recent decades, soil organic carbon (SOC) is considered to be one of the most vital components of global climate mitigation that has the potential to be managed to a certain extent. This was evident from the past research conducted in Australian cotton farming systems where the soil and crop management influenced the SOC changes and minimised the carbon losses. More recently, the SOC concentrations across selected on-farm cotton industry sites were lower than research station fields. This suggests, either there is a potential for minimising the SOC losses or improving the SOC across the industry fields by manipulating the cotton cropping systems and by improving our understanding of post sequestration losses. Benchmarking SOC in conjunction with soil and crop management over time will assist with identifying the climate-resilient cotton cropping systems. In view of this, the project aims to 1.      Benchmark SOC between long term trials and selected on-farm industry sites. 2.     Benchmark soil properties and soil management between long term management systems and selected on-farm industry sites. 3.     Investigate and identify the soil management and novel crop rotation tactics that minimise the SOC losses and sustain/improve SOC and soil physical properties in modern cotton farming systems.