Australian Soil Carbon Research Program

This data collection contains measurements of the carbon content and composition in the 0 to 30 cm layer of soil under a range of agricultural management practices in numerous regions around Australia. It also contains the data required to calculate the stocks of soil organic carbon and its components and various climate, topographic and management data associated with each soil collection site.\nLineage: Soil carbon contents (total, organic and inorganic) and for some samples total nitrogen content were measured directly. The distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) in three major SOC fractions (e.g. particulate, humus and resistant organic carbon) was directly measured on a subset of samples using a combination of physical size fractionation and solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). All soil carbon and total nitrogen contents were also predicted from mid infrared (MIR) spectra collected for all soil samples. The measured analytical data was used in association with the associated MIR spectra in a partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis to derive predictive algorithms, and these algorithms were used to generate predicted values. Detailed management histories were collected where available and other potential determinants of SOC content and composition such as climate, soil type and topography were obtained.