Study on determining organic carbon reservoirs in soils of the Red River Delta for monitoring soil quality and greenhouse gas emissions from soils

On May 29, 2025, the Ministry of Science and Technology held a meeting of the Council for Evaluation and Acceptance of the national science and technology task: "Research on determining organic carbon reservoirs in soil in the Red River Delta to serve the monitoring of soil quality and greenhouse gas emissions from soil", code DTĐL.CN-49/21.

Based on the Basic Science Development Program in the fields of Chemistry, Life Sciences, Earth Sciences and Marine Sciences for the period 2017 - 2025, according to Decision No. 562/QD-TTg dated April 25, 2017 of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Science and Technology approved the task of "Research on determining organic carbon reservoirs in soils in the Red River Delta to serve the monitoring of soil quality and greenhouse gas emissions from soil" led by Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tuan; Vietnam Museum of Nature, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology is the host agency. The project will be implemented from October 2021 to March 30, 2025.

At the meeting, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tuan - Project Manager presented a summary of the research content and results. Accordingly, Soil is the largest terrestrial carbon sink on Earth, in which organic carbon accounts for a large proportion. Small changes in soil carbon can cause important changes in atmospheric carbon levels, affecting global warming potential. In addition, soil carbon plays an important role in soil fertility, crop productivity and the global carbon cycle. Therefore, accurately determining the organic carbon content in soil and its spatial distribution is of great significance to land management practices. This is an important basis for determining the potential for providing carbon credits for agricultural production areas in our country. For soil samples (point scale), soil carbon content is determined by dry combustion, wet combustion and spectroscopy methods. For regional scale, soil carbon distribution is determined by value assignment, geostatistics and machine learning methods.

Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tuan - Project Manager briefly presented the research content and results of the task.

The main objectives of the project are:

Establishing a scientific basis and appropriate methods to determine organic carbon pools under major land use types in the delta region of Vietnam;

Identify factors affecting the ability to create organic carbon reservoirs in soils in the Red River Delta;

Determine baseline organic carbon curves and soil organic carbon pools under major land use types in the Red River Delta;

Proposing effective land use management solutions to enhance carbon accumulation in soil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from soil in the Red River Delta.

The mission has achieved the following remarkable results:

Report on scientific basis and suitable methods to determine soil organic carbon pools under major land use types in delta areas of Vietnam.

Report on factors affecting the ability to create organic carbon pools in soils in the Red River Delta.

The report identifies baseline organic carbon curves and soil organic carbon pools under different land use types in the Red River Delta.

The report proposes effective land use management solutions to enhance the ability to accumulate organic carbon in soil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from soil in the Red River Delta.

Digital database (including data: soil type, land use, soil sample collection points, soil organic carbon pools, soil organic carbon content, soil organic carbon reserves, administrative units, digital terrain models, satellite images, climate, component and composite maps at scale 1:250,000).

01 international publication in the ISI/SCOPUS journal system.

04 published in domestic journals.

Support training 02 Masters and 01 PhD.

National Acceptance Evaluation Council

The members of the Acceptance Council highly appreciated the contributions of the Chairman and the Presiding Agency; the summary report and summary report had a reasonable structure, in accordance with the requirements of a scientific report; the type, quantity, volume, progress and quality of the products met the order requirements. With the results achieved, the Council unanimously accepted the topic at the "Passed" level. At the same time, the research team was required to absorb the comments and make appropriate edits, complete the dossier and submit it to the Ministry of Science and Technology for a decision to recognize the results of the task.

Department of Social Sciences, Humanities and Natural Sciences

Source: https://mst.gov.vn/nghien-cuu-xac-dinh-be-chua-cacbon-huu-co-trong-dat-vung-dong-bang-song-hong-phuc-vu-giam-sat-chat-luong-dat-va-phat-thai-khi-nha-kinh-tu-dat-197250601203453663.htm