Keywords

greenhouse gases, carbon, conservation, agriculture, ecosystem

Start Date

25-6-2018 3:40 PM

End Date

25-6-2018 5:00 PM

Abstract

Conservation planners must assess a range of environmental, agronomic and economic impacts of implementing conservation practices on farms. While environmental impacts such as soil erosion control, improved soil quality, reduced nonpoint source pollution and a number of other site-specific benefits are currently considered, conservation practices may also have significant climate benefits, through carbon sequestration and/or reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If conservation planners wish to incorporate greenhouse gas impacts in their planning process, they will need access to quick, easy-to-use tools to assess greenhouse gas impacts of conservation practices on farms. COMET-Planner (www.comet-planner.com) was developed to provide generalized estimates of GHG impacts of adoption of USDA National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conservation practice standards in a simple, web-based platform. Conservation scenarios were modeled in COMET-Farm, a whole farm and ranch carbon and greenhouse gas accounting system based on USDA entity-scale quantification methods, across a range of agricultural management, climate and soil types within Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA). Mean carbon sequestration and emission changes (CO2, N2O and CH4) associated with USDA-NRCS conservation practice adoption were estimated by MLRA. Results are provided to users via the web interface and a detailed methods report.

Stream and Session

C12

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Jun 25th, 3:40 PM Jun 25th, 5:00 PM

COMET-Planner: Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Evaluation for USDA-NRCS Conservation Practice Planning

Conservation planners must assess a range of environmental, agronomic and economic impacts of implementing conservation practices on farms. While environmental impacts such as soil erosion control, improved soil quality, reduced nonpoint source pollution and a number of other site-specific benefits are currently considered, conservation practices may also have significant climate benefits, through carbon sequestration and/or reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If conservation planners wish to incorporate greenhouse gas impacts in their planning process, they will need access to quick, easy-to-use tools to assess greenhouse gas impacts of conservation practices on farms. COMET-Planner (www.comet-planner.com) was developed to provide generalized estimates of GHG impacts of adoption of USDA National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conservation practice standards in a simple, web-based platform. Conservation scenarios were modeled in COMET-Farm, a whole farm and ranch carbon and greenhouse gas accounting system based on USDA entity-scale quantification methods, across a range of agricultural management, climate and soil types within Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA). Mean carbon sequestration and emission changes (CO2, N2O and CH4) associated with USDA-NRCS conservation practice adoption were estimated by MLRA. Results are provided to users via the web interface and a detailed methods report.