ARSF project HY05/08; led by Dr. Zoe Carroll (CEH Bangor); Site = Plynlimon (mid-Wales)

An accurate knowledge of soil carbon stores is fundamental to understanding and predicting the role of terrestrial systems in the global carbon cycle. For the UK, soil carbon is currently mapped at a relatively coarse (1 km) grid resolution, but field data clearly demonstrate a high level of heterogeneity at fine spatial scales. The project aimed at developing a new method for estimating the carbon stocks of upland organic-rich soils, in which remotely sensed data are related to an intensive ground-based survey of soil carbon in the Plynlimon catchments, mid-Wales. The project utilised spatial high-resolution elevation (LiDAR) and test novel high spectral resolution hyperspectral data to develop fine-scale topographic and vegetation maps, across a heterogeneous area of upland, organic-rich moorland soils. The relationship between topographic position and vegetation parameters to field measurements of soil carbon content were examined using geostatistical techniques. Geostatistical predictions were then used to map C stocks at a previously unachievable resolution for moorland catchments.