Nikolaidis NikolaosΝικολαιδης Νικολαος2024-10-312024-10-3120132015-04-28F. E. Stamati, N. P. Nikolaidis, J. L. Schnoor, "Modeling topsoil carbon sequestration in two contrasting crop production to set-aside conversions with RothC–Calibration issues and uncertainty analysis," Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, vol. 165, pp. 190-200, Jan. 2013.https://dspace.library.tuc.gr/handle/123456789/481Model simulations of soil organic carbon turnover in agricultural fields have inherent uncertainties due to input data, initial conditions, and model parameters. The RothC model was used in a Monte-Carlo based framework to assess the uniqueness of solution in carbon sequestration simulations. The model was applied to crop production to set aside conversions in Iowa (sandy clay-loam soil, humid-continental climate) and Greece (clay-loam soil, Mediterranean). The model was initialized and calibrated with particulate organic carbon data obtained by physical fractionation. The calibrated values for the Iowa grassland were 5.05 t C ha-1, 0.34 y-1, and 0.27 y-1 24 for plant litter input and decomposition rate constants for resistant plant material (RPM) and humus, respectively, while for the Greek shrubland these were 3.79 t C ha-1, 0.21 y-1, and 0.0041 y-126 , correspondingly. The sensitivity analysis revealed that for both sites, the total plant litter input and the RPM rate constant showed the highest sensitivity. The Iowa soil was projected to sequester 17.5 t C ha-1 and the Greek soil 54 tC ha- 28 1 29 over 100 years and the projected uncertainty was 65.6% and 70.8%, respectively. We propose this methodology to assess the factors affecting carbon sequestration in agricultural soils and quantify the uncertainties.Pages 190-200enhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/S/N sequastrationAggregationParticulate OMRothC modelingCalibrationPeer-Reviewed Journal Publication