The objective of the project was to develop a method to monitor current and future changes in the carbon stocks of forest soils. The efficiencies of different sampling methods will be quantified and compared, and the costs of an appropriate soil carbon monitoring were estimated. The analyses were based on simulations for a few test regions and tests of validity of the simulations using empirical data.
Among other parties of the Climate Convention and signatory countries of the Kyoto Protocol, EU has commitments to report changes in the carbon stocks of forests, including the carbon stock of soils. As none of the current national or international soil survey networks is designed for carbon inventories, there is an urgent need for reliable and effective methods to monitor soil carbon. This project combined the strengths of an existing, well-validated soil carbon model, knowledge on the spatial variation of soil carbon and sound statistics to provide quantitative information on the reliability, efficiency and costs of different methods to monitor changes in soil carbon. This information formed a solid basis for the decisions to be taken on monitoring changes in soil carbon.