{"type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [{"id": "10.5281/zenodo.4384692", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-04-13T16:24:35Z", "type": "Dataset", "title": "Soil organic carbon stocks and trends (1984-2019) predicted at 30m spatial resolution for topsoil in natural areas of South Africa", "description": "Link to scientific publication: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145384 Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks (kg C m-2) are predicted over natural areas (excluding water, urban, and cultivated) of South Africa using a machine learning workflow driven by optical satellite data and other ancillary climatic, morphometric and biological covariates. The temporal scope covers 1984-2019. The spatial scope covers 0-30cm topsoil in South Africa natural land area (84% of the country). See methodology in linked publication for details. Data are provided here at 30m spatial resolution in GeoTIFF files. There is a dataset for the long-term average SOC and trend in SOC. Each dataset is split into four files (suffix *_1, *_2 etc.) covering separate regions of South Africa for ease of download. The raster files are: 'SOC_mean_30m...' - average of annual SOC predictions between 1984 and 2019. Values are expressed in kg C m-2 'SOC_trend_30m...' - long-term trend in SOC derived from the Sens slope (M) across annual SOC values between 1984 and 2019. Pixel values (Y) are expressed as a percentage change over the 35 years relative to the long-term mean (X). Y = M / X * 100 * 35 years NB: All files are scaled by *100 and converted to floating data point to save space. To back-convert to original values, simply divide the raster values by 100.", "keywords": ["2. Zero hunger", "carbon stocks", "remote sensing", "13. Climate action", "land degradation", "spatial prediction", "15. Life on land", "soil carbon", "carbon sequestration", "natural climate solutions", "soil mapping"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Venter, Zander S, Hawkins, Heidi-Jayne, Cramer, Michael D, Mills, Anthony J,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4384692"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.5281/zenodo.4384692", "name": "item", "description": "10.5281/zenodo.4384692", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.5281/zenodo.4384692"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2020-12-22T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1111/gcb.14815", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-04-13T16:19:22Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2019-08-30", "title": "How to measure, report and verify soil carbon change to realize the potential of soil carbon sequestration for atmospheric greenhouse gas removal", "description": "Abstract

There is growing international interest in better managing soils to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) content to contribute to climate change mitigation, to enhance resilience to climate change and to underpin food security, through initiatives such as international \uffe2\uff80\uff984p1000\uffe2\uff80\uff99 initiative and the FAO's Global assessment of SOC sequestration potential (GSOCseq) programme. Since SOC content of soils cannot be easily measured, a key barrier to implementing programmes to increase SOC at large scale, is the need for credible and reliable measurement/monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) platforms, both for national reporting and for emissions trading. Without such platforms, investments could be considered risky. In this paper, we review methods and challenges of measuring SOC change directly in soils, before examining some recent novel developments that show promise for quantifying SOC. We describe how repeat soil surveys are used to estimate changes in SOC over time, and how long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term experiments and space\uffe2\uff80\uff90for\uffe2\uff80\uff90time substitution sites can serve as sources of knowledge and can be used to test models, and as potential benchmark sites in global frameworks to estimate SOC change. We briefly consider models that can be used to simulate and project change in SOC and examine the MRV platforms for SOC change already in use in various countries/regions. In the final section, we bring together the various components described in this review, to describe a new vision for a global framework for MRV of SOC change, to support national and international initiatives seeking to effect change in the way we manage our soils.There is growing international interest in better managing soils to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) content to contribute to climate change mitigation, to enhance resilience to climate change and to underpin food security, through initiatives such as international \uffe2\uff80\uff984p1000\uffe2\uff80\uff99 initiative and the FAO's Global assessment of SOC sequestration potential (GSOCseq) programme. Since SOC content of soils cannot be easily measured, a key barrier to implementing programmes to increase SOC at large scale, is the need for credible and reliable measurement/monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) platforms, both for national reporting and for emissions trading. Without such platforms, investments could be considered risky. In this paper, we review methods and challenges of measuring SOC change directly in soils, before examining some recent novel developments that show promise for quantifying SOC. We describe how repeat soil surveys are used to estimate changes in SOC over time, and how long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term experiments and space\uffe2\uff80\uff90for\uffe2\uff80\uff90time substitution sites can serve as sources of knowledge and can be used to test models, and as potential benchmark sites in global frameworks to estimate SOC change. We briefly consider models that can be used to simulate and project change in SOC and examine the MRV platforms for SOC change already in use in various countries/regions. In the final section, we bring together the various components described in this review, to describe a new vision for a global framework for MRV of SOC change, to support national and international initiatives seeking to effect change in the way we manage our soils.