MORRISVILLE, NC and CAMBRIDGE, MA, January 29, 2025 — A new handheld tool shows promise for measuring soil carbon stocks at scale, a crucial step in quantifying agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, soil health and resiliency, and the impact of regenerative management practices.
Current methods for measuring carbon stored in soil involve collecting physical samples and shipping them to a lab for analysis. A new study from the Soil Health Institute and Yard Stick PBC shows that Yard Stick’s spectral probe can accurately measure soil carbon stocks up to 45 cm (nearly 18 inches) deep right in the field, saving time and money: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.117152
The probe uses visible and near-infrared spectroscopy to record a “movie” of the soil, quantifying carbon content based on how different wavelengths of light are absorbed by soil or reflected back into the probe’s sensors.
In the ARPA-E-supported study, the researchers measured soil carbon with Yard Stick’s spectral probe and with laboratory analysis at six farms across Illinois. By comparing the probe’s results to combustion-based lab analysis, they confirmed that the probe accurately estimated soil organic carbon stocks to a depth of 45 cm.
“This probe presents an inexpensive yet accurate solution for rigorous, measurement-based carbon markets,” says Dr. Ayush Joshi Gyawali, a Research Soil Scientist at the Soil Health Institute and the study’s lead author.
Cristine Morgan, Chief Scientific Officer at the Soil Health Institute, concurred: “I have worked on novel soil measurement technologies for over twenty years. Rapid, reliable, and low-cost measurement of soil carbon is essential to assessing healthy agricultural systems and soil-based climate change adaptations and solutions, and these data show that Yard Stick’s spectral probe can deliver.”
Co-authors of the study in the journal Geoderma include Marissa Wiseman, Sarah Coffman, and Kevin Meissner of Yard Stick PBC and SHI Research Soil Scientist and Program Director Dr. Jason Ackerson.
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The Soil Health Institute is a global non-profit with a mission of safeguarding and enhancing the vitality and productivity of soils through scientific research and advancement. Our vision is a world where farmers and ranchers grow quality food, fiber, and fuel using soil health systems that sustain farms and rural communities, promote a stable climate and clean environment, and improve human health and well-being.
By bringing together leaders in science and industry, SHI conducts research and empowers farmers and landowners to adopt soil health systems that contribute economic and environmental benefits to agriculture and society.
Find out more at soilhealthinstitute.org or on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Yard Stick provides easy, accurate, and affordable quantification of soil carbon stocks around the world. Soil carbon stock destruction is a persistent food security, national security, public health, and climate change crisis all wrapped in one. But the lack of affordable, scalable measurement has held solutions back.
Until now.
By reducing the cost of soil carbon measurement while improving scientific rigor, Yard Stick will activate soils to improve ecosystem health, increase supply chain resiliency, boost farmer and rancher incomes, and reverse climate change.
Find out more at useyardstick.com or on LinkedIn and Twitter.
