Agricultural impact on soil organic carbon content: testing the IPCC carbon accounting method for evaluations at county scale

This research paper evaluates the performance of Tier 1 (T1) and Tier 2 (T2) IPCC carbon accounting methods for estimating soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and flows in the Argentinean Pampa Region from 1900 to 2006, finding that the T2 method, developed using the RothC model, provides more realistic regional inventories than the T1 method.

• The study found that the Tier 1 (T1) method performed poorly at both sub-region and county scales, while the Tier 2 (T2) method showed significant improvement. The T2 method's performance varied by scale, showing a very good fit at the sub-region scale (R2 = 0.85) but a poor fit at the county scale (R2 = 0.46). However, excluding the Flooding Pampa sub-region increased the county-scale R2 to 0.73, suggesting that data quality in that specific area impacted the results.
• Using the Tier 2 method to estimate the impact of land use change on SOC, the researchers identified the highest average SOC losses in three specific sub-regions: Central Pampa (35%), Southern Pampa – Eastern (28%), and Rolling Pampa (26%).
• The authors conclude that the T2 method is more realistic for conducting regional SOC inventories because it overcomes conceptual limitations of the T1 method. Notably, the T2 method was developed without requiring empirical field or laboratory data on SOC change, making it a viable option for countries lacking such information.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2025). Agricultural impact on soil organic carbon content: testing the IPCC carbon accounting method for evaluations at county scale. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/agricultural-impact-on-soil-organic-carbon-content-testing-the-ipcc-carbon-accounting-method-for-evaluations-at-county-scale/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Agricultural impact on soil organic carbon content: testing the IPCC carbon accounting method for evaluations at county scale. 2025. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/agricultural-impact-on-soil-organic-carbon-content-testing-the-ipcc-carbon-accounting-method-for-evaluations-at-county-scale/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=Agricultural impact on soil organic carbon content: testing the IPCC carbon accounting method for evaluations at county scale |date=17 January 2025 |url=https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/agricultural-impact-on-soil-organic-carbon-content-testing-the-ipcc-carbon-accounting-method-for-evaluations-at-county-scale/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2025agricultural, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{Agricultural impact on soil organic carbon content: testing the IPCC carbon accounting method for evaluations at county scale}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/agricultural-impact-on-soil-organic-carbon-content-testing-the-ipcc-carbon-accounting-method-for-evaluations-at-county-scale/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }