# Carbon depth for soil carbon (C\_soil) pool

**URL:** <https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/carbon-depth-for-soil-carbon-c-soil-pool/5264>\
**Category:** Science, Research & Data\
**Tags:** carbon\
**Created:** [July 17, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/carbon-depth-for-soil-carbon-c-soil-pool/5264 "2024-07-17T22:17:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![geshirkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@geshirkey](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/u/geshirkey)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/carbon-depth-for-soil-carbon-c-soil-pool/5264/1 "2024-07-17T22:17:19Z")

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Hello, I’d like to know the original sources for the default carbon pools and particularly the depths for which the defaults were taken from.

I’ve searched the user guides online and found that they refer elsewhere (typically to IPCC equations) but don’t provide where the values were taken from in literature.

Can someone share where or how the soil depth (e.g., 30m or deeper) is reported in the default data? I’m specifically interested in the soil depth for flooded/marsh c\_stock.

Thanks!  
~Gabriela

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**Author:** ![swolny](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/swolny/32/181_2.png) [@swolny](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/u/swolny)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 5:00am UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/carbon-depth-for-soil-carbon-c-soil-pool/5264/2 "2024-07-18T05:00:02Z")

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Hello @geshirkey, and welcome!

Are the “default carbon pools” you reference the ones provided in our sample data for the Carbon Sequestration model? If so, I’m sorry to say that those data are really old and we did not document their sources. So we don’t recommend using them for your own studies.

I can recommend looking for soil carbon data that is often provided with soil datasets. For example, ISRIC SoilGrids provides soil carbon data. You can set C\_soil to 0 in the model’s carbon pool table, then manually add the external soil carbon raster after running the model with aboveground/belowground/litter values only.

~ Stacie

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**Author:** ![geshirkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@geshirkey](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/u/geshirkey)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 7:22pm UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/carbon-depth-for-soil-carbon-c-soil-pool/5264/3 "2024-07-18T19:22:22Z")

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Hello Stacie, thank you for the quick help! Yes, those default carbon pools I referred to are from the sample data for the Carbon Sequestration model. Sorry to hear that the original sources are unavailable. I appreciate the recommendations.