Predicted soil organic carbon stocks and changes in ...

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Mar 6, 2007 - Kenya between 1990 and 2030. P.T. Kamoni ...... Falloon, P., Jones, C.D., Cerri, C.E., Al-Adamat, R., Kamoni, P., Battachar- yya, T., Easter, M., ...
Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 122 (2007) 105–113 www.elsevier.com/locate/agee

Predicted soil organic carbon stocks and changes in Kenya between 1990 and 2030 P.T. Kamoni a,*, P.T. Gicheru a, S.M. Wokabi a, M. Easter b, E. Milne c, K. Coleman d, P. Falloon e, K. Paustian b a National Agricultural Research Laboratories, P.O. Box 14733, Nairobi, Kenya The Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1499, USA c The Department of Soil Science, The University of Reading, P.O. Box 233, Reading RG6 6DW, UK d The Agriculture and Environment Division, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Herts AL5 2JQ, UK e The Met. Office, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, Fitzroy Road, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK

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Available online 6 March 2007

Abstract Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Non-Annex 1 countries such as Kenya are obliged to report green house gas (GHG) emissions from all sources where possible, including those from soils as a result of changes in land use or land management. At present, the convention encourages countries to estimate emissions using the most advanced methods possible, given the country circumstances and resources. Estimates of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and changes were made for Kenya using the Global Environment Facility Soil Organic Carbon (GEFSOC) Modelling System. The tool conducts analysis using three methods: (1) the Century general ecosystem model; (2) the RothC soil C decomposition model; and (3) the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method for assessing soil C at regional scales. The required datasets included: land use history, monthly mean precipitation, monthly mean minimum and maximum temperatures for all the agro-climatic zones of Kenya and historical vegetation cover. Soil C stocks of 1.4–2.0 Pg (0–20 cm), compared well with a Soil and Terrain (SOTER) based approach that estimated 1.8–2.0 Pg (0–30 cm). In 1990 48% of the country had SOC stocks of