Agricultural Land Management (ALM) including soil carbon sequestration are rapidly emerging components of the overall ecosystem and sustainability marketplace. Over the last few years, the number of ALM methodologies available to project developers/landowners has been increasing. The American Carbon Registry (ACR), Climate Action Reserve (Reserve) and Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) have all added to agricultural project opportunities, including methodologies for reducing nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertilizers, reducing methane emissions from rice cultivation, introduction of sustainable agricultural land management, grassland management and a modular soil carbon quantification methodology. For additional information on the various methodologies, please read our ALM Opportunities Expanding article.
Soil Carbon Services
The most commonly requested soil carbon services in the United States and abroad include:
- Third-party validation and/or verification of ALM offset projects;
- Third-party ALM methodology assessments;
- Soil carbon sampling methodology review and implementation;
- Soil mapping from large scale (high intensity soil survey) to smaller scales;
- Soil suitability studies for a wide range of land uses;
- Soil suitability studies for habitat and wetland restoration project;.
- Management and implementation of wetlands and habitat restoration plans;
- Consultation on soil carbon project (conservation tillage, sustainably managed rangelands, etc.) development and establishment; and
- Consultation with soil carbon offset project landowners to provide agricultural recommendations for projects to maximize soil carbon sequestration benefits.
Predictive Modeling services:
- Site specific allometric equation development and validation [(i.e. site specific equations that can predict tree (or crop) height, biomass and growth overtime]
- Parameterize models such as 3-PG that physiologically predict carbon growth in plant communities; accounting for changes in temperature or rainfall that may result from climate change.
- Review the viability of plant communities such agricultural crops or forest in the future climate scenarios.
- Plan for permanence of carbon projects given future projected climates
For additional information on our ALM services, please contact Richard Scharf (rscharf@AsterGlobal.com).
