Digital Soil Assessments and Beyond Minasny, Malone & McBratney (eds) 2012 Taylor & Francis Group,

p, London, ISBN 978-0-415-62155-7

Soil natural capital definition using land evaluation principles

A.E. Hewitt & T. Webb
Landcare Research, Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand

E. Dominati
AgResearch, Palmerston North, Manawatu, New Zealand

C. Hedley
Landcare Research, Palmerston North, Manawatu, New Zealand

ABSTRACT: A method is presented for assessing soil natural capital based on the principles of land evaluation in a digital soil assessment context. Policymakers are adopting concepts of ecosystem services, and the natural capital stocks that produce them, to provide a more holistic approach to analyse the tradeoffs between environmental, economic, and social outcomes from land use. Soil is frequently overlooked in these analyses. Our goal is to provide techniques for the digital soil mapping community to quantify and map soil natural capital and soil services and so enable soil science to more powerfully engage with decision-makers. For the discipline of land evaluation a soil natural capital approach provides a new way of quantifying and thinking about soil assets. The approach is to estimate the adequacy of soil natural capital stocks to support the soil processes required by a specified land use. A stock adequacy index is defined to identify whether soil services are limited by soil natural capital stocks or advantaged by a stock surplus. Reference values are derived from a stock qualityquantity curve determined from land evaluation and soil quality literature, or by modelling. The index may be integrated into land resource assessments and provides a quantitative basis for the evaluation of land-use suitability, sustainability and environmental performance. 1 INTRODUCTION land use. Soil natural capital stocks are defined by soil properties either directly measured or estimated by pedotransfer functions. The soil profile is the basic unit of soil natural capital and is characterized by a number of stocks. This approach will facilitate the mapping of soil natural capital stocks, using normal soil mapping techniques. The soil stocks are of four kinds: (1) inherent stocks of soil matter (varying over long timescales, e.g., clay content), (2) manageable, dynamic stocks of soil matter (varying over short timescales, e.g., soil water content (Dominate 2010), (3) energy stocks (e.g., stored heat), and (4) soil fabric (e.g., total porosity). Our ultimate goal is to provide a basis for quantification of soil natural capital and economic valuation of soil services across extensive areas of land. Our proposed method has been influenced by the need for spatial application using available spatial databases. 2 METHOD

The recognition of soil as natural capital and a component of the earths natural capital (Costanza et al., 1987) opens new avenues for integration of soil science with other environmental sciences and with economics. Soil natural capital has emerged as a useful concept for analysing environmental and resource management problems (e.g., Millennium Assessment 2005, Bristow et al., 2010) and although soil science provides an understanding of the links between soil properties and processes, soil natural capital remains a black box. Recent work by Dominati et al. (2011) has opened the black box and begun to reveal the inner relationships between soil natural capital, soil properties, processes and the provisioning and regulating of services provided by soils. In this paper we present a method to estimate and map soil natural capital using commonly available soil database information. The goal is to quantify and value, soil natural capital and soil services to inform environmental policy and land management decision-making. We define soil natural capital (adapted from Dominati et al., 2010) as soil stocks able to sustain the provision of soil services required by a specified

The stock adequacy method for quantifying soil natural capital is based on the principles of

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land evaluation (Rossiter 1996) and soil quality evaluation (Sparling et al., 2004). Soil natural capital is quantified relative to the requirements of a specified land-use type. It is proposed that for adequate sustainable production a land-use type requires a specific set of soil services. The soil services may be represented in this method using the outputs of soil process-based models. For effective operation the soil services need to draw upon a specific set and level of soil stocks. If these stocks are adequate then the soil services can operate to their full potential, and in turn, the land-use type can operate to its potential, as far as the soil is concerned. If the soil stocks are not adequate then the provision of soil services, and in turn the land-use type, will not adequately perform. A measure of the soil natural capital at a site is the sum of the adequacy of the key soil stocks required to drive the soil services. Dominati et al. (2010) outlines the correspondence between soil natural capital stocks and soil services. Several assumptions are made. First, that we can identify the appropriate key soil services required by a specific land use and the key soil stocks driving the soil services. The identification of soil qualities in the land evaluation literature suggests the key soil services required by specific land use types. The inputs of soil process-based models that might be used to represent soil services can suggest the key soil stocks required by soil services. The usual modeling strategy of parsimony is appropriate. Second, we assume that the soil processes that contribute to soil service outputs are self-initiated and that they will operate if the nominated stocks are present. Third, the analysis considers only soil service outputs and soil stocks. Many factors influence the effective production of a land use (Dominati 2010), but wherever possible the focus of the method is the soil, and other nonsoil limiting factors are not considered. Because the focus is natural capital, we are not considering the influence of built capital on the potential provision of soil services. We are focusing on the natural potential of soils before any improvements. Built capital encompasses improvements to soil such as irrigation, artificial drainage, or addition of fertilizers. The stock adequacy method has the following steps (outlined in Fig. 1). 1. Define the land-use type. The definition needs to be specific as it influences the choice of soil services required for productive output and sustainable management. For example, high animal grazing intensity will require specification of an animal support service. 2. Select the soil services required to support and manage the land-use type. The required services

Figure 1. Outline of procedure for evaluating soil natural capital (SNC) for a specified soil and land use type. The stock adequacy indices can be summed over all services to derive an overall SNC index for the soil/ land-use-type combination.

will be indicated by the desired production level and the management interventions necessary to develop and maintain the condition of the land. 3. Determine the soil stocks, represented by soil properties, needed to sustain each soil service. These may be fundamental soil properties measured directly in the field or indirectly by proximal sensing, from field samples in the lab, or they may be derived properties calculated from fundamental properties using a pedotransfer function. Stocks will often support more than one soil service. Where soil services are based on soil process models, appropriate stocks are suggested by the model inputs. 4. Quantify the soil stocks at each evaluation site. The site may be represented as a polygon or a component of a polygon on conventional soil maps, or a soil pixel on digital soil maps. 5. Estimate the quality of each stock to adequately support a specified level of soil service in a percentage scale. This measure of quality is characterised as a stock adequacy index. An index of 100% indicates stock levels of sufficient quality to satisfy service needs. An index above 100% indicates a stock surplus. An index below 100% indicates insufficient stock quality to deliver an optimal soil service. Where a stock supports two or more services then separate stock quality estimates are made for each soil service.

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The relationship between the level of stock adequacy and the quantity of the stock is defined by a stock quantityquality curve for a specific stock, service and land-use type. The estimation of the index involves two steps. First, the 100% adequacy level is determined for each stock. Second, the quantityquality curve is determined and used to quantify levels of stock inadequacy. The 100% threshold and the qualityquantity curve may be derived from literature or soil process-based modelling. The quality of inherent stocks may be available from land evaluation literature where the stocks have been identified as land qualities and the qualityquantity relationships provided as land evaluation ratings for each land quality (e.g., Webb & Wilson 1995). The quality of dynamic stocks may be available in soil quality literature (e.g., Sparling et al., 2004). Curves may also be derived from published simulation modelling studies (e.g., Lilburne & Webb 2002), or directly using process-based models. 6. Derive an aggregated stock adequacy across all stocks. As in conventional land evaluation analyses the aggregation may include parametric (Rossiter 1996) or maximum limitations approaches. 3 APPLICATION

Stock adequacy %

100 80 60 40 20 0 0 50 100 150 200

Prole avail. water capacity mm

Figure 2. Stock quantity (PAWC) quality (stock adequacy) curve for the nitrate filtering service derived from Lilburne & Webb (2002).

CONCLUSIONS

To illustrate the method we describe an example of an intensive dairy farm in Canterbury, New Zealand. Several soil services are required to support intensive pastoral dairy. Provisioning services include pasture quantity and quality, and support of animals through soil structural stability. Regulating services include filtering of nitrogen, phosphorous and contaminants, flood mitigation and nitrous oxide and methane emissions attenuation. In this paper we only describe one soil servicenitrate filtering. The soils are permeable and comprise loamy material overlying very stony material. The key input stock controlling nitrate filtering in the low anion exchange capacity soils of the study area is the soil available water capacity summed over the profile to the depth of stones (termed, profile available water capacityPAWC). The stock quantityquality relationship for PAWC in Canterbury was derived from a modelling study using the Gleams model (Lilburne & Webb 2002). The derived curve is shown in Figure 2. These values were applied to a digital soil map of soil depth classes. The resulting map provides an index map that expresses variation in soil natural capital quality that is related to the nitrate-filtering service.

The stock adequacy method has potential to incorporate the concepts of soil natural capital and ecosystem services into land evaluations that place the soil in a wider ecosystem context. Because the soil stock adequacy index is based on soil service delivery it may be used as an objective estimate of soil natural capital. Its accuracy is strongly dependent on the accuracy and appropriateness of the data used to determine the stock quantity-quality relationship. Available process-based models will have been developed for purposes other than soil service estimation and it may be necessary to design or modify models to better fit this purpose. Because the stock adequacy analysis incorporates both inherent and dynamic soil attributes, soil natural capital quantification has the potential to integrate the largely independent streams of land evaluation and soil quality. The proposed index for quantification of soil natural capital could be used to explore applications in resource use efficiency, and land-use trade-off analysis. This method quantifies soil natural capital with respect to a defined land use. The soil natural capital concept is also used in a general sense to express the quality for a broad range of potential land uses. We suggest that an inherent soil natural capital evaluation could be based on the average stock adequacy for a standard set of land uses, in a way similar to the estimation of a cost price index from price changes for a standard set of commodities. This method is presented to a digital soil modeling workshop because the skills of this audience are needed to advance it to an operational level.

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REFERENCES
Bristow, K.L., Marchant, S.M., Deurer, M. & Clothier, B.E. 2010. Enhancing the ecological infrastructure of soils. In: Soil solutions for a changing world; Proc. 19th World Congress of Soil Science, 16 August 2010, Brisbane, Australia. (Published on CD-ROM). Costanza, R., dArge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., ONeill, R., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R., Sutton, P. & van den Belt, M. 1987. The value of the worlds ecosystems services and natural capital. Nature 387: 253260. Dominati, E., Mackay, A., Green, S. & Patterson, M. 2011. The value of soil services for nutrients management. In L.D. Currie & C.L. Christensen (eds) Adding to the knowledge base for the nutrient manager. http:// flrc.massey.ac.nz/publications.html. Occasional Report No. 24. Palmerston North, New Zealand: Fertilizer and Lime Research Centre, Massey University. Dominati, E., Patterson, M. & Mackay, A. 2010. A framework for classifying and quantifying the natural capital and ecosystem services of soils. Ecological Economics 69: 18581868.

Lilburne, L.R. & Webb, T.H. 2002. Effect of soil variability, within and between soil taxonomic units, on simulated nitrate leaching under arable farming, New Zealand. Australian Journal of Soil Research 40: 11871199. Millennium Assessment. 2005. http://millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx Rossiter, D.G. 1996. A theoretical framework for land evaluation. Geoderma 72: 165190. Sparling, G.P., Schipper, L.A., Bettjeman, W. & Hill, R. 2004. Soil quality monitoring in New Zealand: practical lessons from a 6-year project. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 104: 523534. Webb, T.H. & Wilson, A.D. 1995. A manual of land characteristics for evaluation of rural land. Landcare Research Science Series No. 10. Lincoln, New Zealand: Manaaki Whenua Press.

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