Into the Depth of It: Soil Organic Carbon in the Albany Thicket

Collaborations through the PRESENCE Network have led to the recent publication of a peer-reviewed scientific article on soil carbon content in thicket. The article is titled “Predictions of soil surface and topsoil organic carbon content through the use of laboratory and field spectroscopy in the Albany Thicket Biome of Eastern Cape Province of South Africa”.

The article has been published in the journal Geoderma and is a collaboration of authors from several PRESENCE partnering organizations: Wageningen University/Alterra (WUR), German Aerospace Agency (DLR), Rhodes Restoration Research Group (R3G) and EarthCollective/Living Lands.

Lead author Marco Nocita carried out his MSc degree field research with PRESENCE in 2009. His objective was to assess soil organic carbon (SOC) on degraded lands in the Kirkwood area. The ultimate goal was to improve methods for estimating SOC in surface and topsoil layers from satellite-born hyperspectral sensors. Potential and promising applications include the prediction of soils’ carbon discharge in those degraded conditions.

PRESENCE is currently hosting PhD students from DLR, who are furthering this research (and that of Marco Nocita) and aligning it to the restoration efforts being carried out in spekboom dominated thicket vegetation types in the area.

View article abstract (with option to download or purchase full article)