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Introduction
The Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases-CarbOn
Management
Evaluation Tool (COMET-VR ) tool is a decision support
tool for agricultural producers, land managers, soil scientists and
other agricultural interests.
COMET-VR
provides an interface to a database containing land use data from the Carbon Sequestration Rural Appraisal (CSRA) and calculates in real time
the annual carbon flux using a dynamic Century model
simulation.
Users of COMET-VR specify a history of agricultural
management practices on one or more parcels of land. The results
are presented as ten year averages of soil carbon
sequestration or emissions with associated statistical uncertainty values.
Estimates can be used to construct a soil carbon inventory for the
1605(b) program.
Getting Started
Click here to find information on how to start the
COMET-VR Tool or use the navigation link "Help" at the top of the page.
You will need the following information about each parcel:
- The location;
- The area in English or Metric units;
- The land management type (i.e., Agricultural or Forest);
- The soil surface texture and hydric condition;
- The management history for four time periods.
Click Here! to start the Voluntary
Report COMET-VR or use the navigation link "COMET-VR Tool" at the top of the page.
New Version and Enhancements
This updated version of COMET-VR has many new enhancements and many new rotations
based on 1997 NRCS NRI data. These include non-irrigated and irrigated
systems, which represent the dominant crop rotations in each region.
Individual crop files were developed to represent higher grain yields,
increases in plant bio-mass and nitrogen fertilizer additions. The
updated COMET-VR has some new innovative cropping practices like the
addition of "pulse" crops made up of field peas and green cover crops.
CSP EAM-40 Participants
If you are using COMET-VR for your CSP reporting and find limitations
in the current rotation selections you should contact your local NRCS
representative for instructions or send an email to Roel Vining
at
roel.vining@por.usda.gov.
Mr. Vining can also be reached by calling 503-273-2410. The new
version of COMET-VR has the catch all category called "Other" that can
be used to comply with CSP requirements.
Database Development and Modeling
The carbon management tool is a collaborative research effort between
USDA Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) and Colorado
State University, Natural Resource Ecology Lab (CSU NREL). Currently, the
COMET-VR site is hosted by Colorado State University, NREL.
This tool estimates soil carbon changes for management alternatives for a ten year projection period
within each Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) allowing users to estimate soil carbon sequestration on a parcel of land.
The analysis is based on MLRA’s as defined by NRCS in Ag Handbook 296 (see table 1).
Data were reviewed and quality control measures assured that the highest
quality inputs were used in the Century model analyses.
Model Inputs
- Climate data are assembled at the Major Land Resource Area (MLRA)
level and are based on Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent
Slopes Model (PRISM).
- Management inputs for cropping systems, tillage systems, fertilizer
use,
and fuel estimates are also included.
- Land use and activity data were
assembled at the MLRA level based on historical records, the USDA NRCS
National Resources Inventory (NRI) and
data collected using a modified Carbon Sequestration Rural Appraisal (CSRA).
Century is a generalized
biogeochemical ecosystem model which simulates carbon (i.e., biomass), nitrogen and other
nutrient dynamics. The model simulates cropland, grassland, forest and savanna ecosystems and land
use changes between these different systems. The Century Model
was developed by Colorado State University (CSU) and
USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS).
The Century model is widely used
in the U.S. and in several other countries around the world for
estimating national soil carbon inventories. In previous work,
NRCS and NREL have collaborated in using the model to estimate
impacts of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) on soil carbon
sequestration and to conduct county level soil carbon estimates
for cropland in Iowa,
Indiana, and Nebraska.
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