InVEST Soil Carbon Stock Modelling of Agricultural Landscapes as an Ecosystem Service Indicator

Abstract

Soil carbon storage results from interactions between ecological processes and contributes to the global chemical regulation of the atmosphere, a vital ecosystem service. Within the ecosystem services approach, measuring soil carbon stock is used as an indicator of landscapes that function as terrestrial carbon sinks and sources. Soil carbon stock models of agricultural landscapes use national carbon stock data and are used to determine environmental benchmarks and develop land-use management strategies for improved landscape-scale carbon sequestration. The InVEST Carbon Storage model has been used as a tool to map carbon stock based on these data. However, the accuracy of the national carbon inventories of Hungary is unknown. In this study, the InVEST soil carbon stock models of two agricultural landscapes in Hungary were produced based on national soil carbon stock data and in-field collected soil sample carbon stock data. Carbon stock inventories were collated and used as InVEST carbon model inputs, and the models were mapped, compared, and evaluated to determine their usefulness in the planning of maximizing soil carbon storage in sustainable land-use management and policy development. Five InVEST soil carbon stock spatial models were produced for both agricultural landscapes, which showed great variation based on the data used to develop it. Aggregate carbon stock potentially stored in the landscape-scale study areas also varied between datasets used. Integrating soil sample data along with national carbon stock data shows prospective applicability in assessing contextual landscape-scale potential soil carbon stock storage.

A Multi-Scenario Land Expansion Simulation Method from Ecosystem Services Perspective of Coastal Urban Agglomeration: A Case Study of GHM-GBA, China

“…Hence, the study chose to reflect the spatial heterogeneity of ES by calculating the carbon sink value in terms of carbon storage [40]. Carbon stock (CS) is the sum of aboveground organic carbon (C above ), belowground biomass organic carbon (C below ), soil organic carbon stock (C soil ), and organic carbon in apoplastic matter (C dead ) in an ecosystem [41,42]. Therefore, this paper adopted the Carbon Storage and Sequestration: Climate Regulation module in the InVEST model to calculate the ecosystem carbon storage and used the first carbon trading price in China (CNY 52.78/ton) as the unit price to calculate the carbon sink value, and finally measured the comprehensive ESV results.…”

Exploring the Relationship between Ecosystem Services under Different Socio-Economic Driving Degrees

“…Ecosystems can store carbon in the biomass of plants, soil, and other components, and adjust to climate change by absorbing and fixing free carbon in the atmosphere [ 27 ]. On a regional scale, LULC change was the main driving force of carbon storage change [ 28 ].…”

Assessment of Ecosystem Services at Different Scales

“…Nine articles were published in this Special Issue. Two papers [20,21] focused solely on the assessment of ESs at a national scale, five [22][23][24][25][26] covered only regional scale assessments, and one paper [27] showed the results of a valuation at two scales (regional and national). There was an article [28] that analyzed the possibility of using the ES concept in environmental impact assessments.…”