University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) - Research portal
Gewählte Master / Diploma Thesis:
Franz Josef Kilian Mayr
(2021):
Spatial modelling and mapping of stable soil organic carbon, sequestration potentials and deficits in agricultural and grassland top soils of Lower Austria.
Master / Diploma Thesis - Institut für Bodenforschung (IBF),
BOKU-Universität für Bodenkultur,
pp 69.
UB BOKU
obvsg
FullText
- Abstract:
- Carbon storage in soil has been claimed as one potential mitigation measure against climate change and is linked to many other important soil functions, like water retention. Especially in agricultural context soil organic carbon (SOC) is a good indicator for soil health. Different land management techniques can be used in advisory level, to have a positive impact in improving SOC levels over time. For targeted action, detailed saturation or deficit maps for consultancy are needed. Due to the increase in availability of high-resolution environmental data and increase of computing power, these maps can be created cost efficiently with different Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) methods and with the help of related spatial environmental layers. Stable soil organic carbon (SSOC), soil organic carbon saturation potential (Csat) and soil organic carbon deficits (Cdef) are important key figures to identify areas that need improvement through agricultural management. To track the situation for the province of Lower Austria for arable and grassland soils to a depth of 20 cm, SSOC, Csat and Cdef were calculated for the sampling points. Subsequently, three different DSM methods were compared for prediction accuracy: Stepwise Regression Kriging, Random Forest and Support Vector Machine Learning. In addition, different sets of covariates were tested. Random Forest was used as the method for the final prediction of SSOC, Csat and Cdef, in combination with all available environmental covariates’ layers including data from the Austrian soil map. The point data which is used for prediction was gathered 1990/91. The results were then prepared via Q-GIS into maps which can be used for policy making and agricultural advisory activities. In particular, these maps can be helpful for identifying areas, where soil health can be improved through change in management.
- Beurteilende(r): Wenzel Walter