2008 Joint Meeting of The Geological Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies with the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM

Paper No. 15
Presentation Time: 5:15 PM

Field-level Estimation of Full GHG Impacts for Cropland, Grassland and Agroforestry


PAUSTIAN, Keith1, OGLE, Stephen2, EASTER, Mark2, KILLIAN, Kendrick2, SWAN, Amy2, ALVERO-FUENTES, Jorge2, SCHULER, Jill3, VINING, Roel4 and MERWIN, Miles4, (1)Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, (2)Natural Resource Ecology Lab, Colorado State University, 1231 East Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80526, (3)ITC, USDA NRCS, Fort Collins, CO 80526, (4)National Air Quality Team, USDA NRCS, Portland, OR 97232, keithp@nrel.colostate.edu

The COMET-VR decision support system is a user-friendly web-based tool that provides estimates of net greenhouse gas emissions at the field scale, within the US. It was originally develop to support the voluntary reporting of emissions and emissions mitigation to the US 1605B system, by individual agricultural producers. A new version of the model adds horticultural (e.g. orchards, vineyards), specialty crops (e.g. rice, sugarcane, vegetables) and agroforestry practices (e.g. windbreaks, riparian woodlands), to the previous model representations of field crop, pasture, hay and CRP agroecosystems. In addition to estimates of soil carbon stock and in-field fossil C emission estimates, the new version includes woody biomass C storage estimates and soil nitrous oxide emissions. The tool includes statistically based estimates of uncertainty for soil C stock changes and N2O emissions in annual crops, hay, pasture and rangeland systems. Examples of model application for a diverse suite of land conservation practices are presented.
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