How long will it take for the soil to be "full" of carbon?

• Increase in SOC is a relatively slow process

• Each year there is a cycle of decomposition as well as deposition.

• Soil's ability to sequester carbon is heavily influenced by soil type- soils with higher clay content will always be more responsive as their ability to capture carbon is much higher than soils of low clay content, particularly sandy soils.

  EXAMPLE:

• 1 ha of soil, 0-30 cms depth, bulk density of 1.18 = 3540 tonnes of soil.

• Average increase of SOC is 0.65 tonnes CO2 e per ha per year

• This equals 0.9 tonnes of SOM ha/year and increase of 0.03% of SOM per year

• Expected in 10 years to increase by 0.3% of SOC ( 0.5% SOM).

Source: Elizabeth Stockdale