CHCx3 Topic Sheet: Soil Carbon
Cotswold Seeds is one of the parners in the CHCx3 project led by the Centre for High Carbon Cropping which aims to support businesses growing high carbon capture crops such as hemp, flax, miscanthus, willow and herbal leys. Accompanying research and monitoring will help to understand the potential for these crops not only to provide lower emission raw materials for the building, clothing and energy industries, but also to sequester more carbon into soils (Figure 1) through their lifecycle than many other crops. A key part of the project is to understand more about the impact of growing these crops on soil carbon sequestration.
The project has produced a series of Topic Sheets which are available to download from their website.
Soil Carbon: Understanding the role of high carbon capture crops in supporting increases in soil carbon storage in the future
This topic sheet sets out the findings from the soil analyses across the project with all samples being subject to the same sampling and analysis protocol.
Within the CHCx3 project, the central hypothesis is that growing high carbon capture crops with their long-term roots in the ground will lead to higher levels of soil carbon sequestration than for many other crops. It is this hypothesis that is being tested through regular soil sampling and analysis within the project.
This topic sheet explores:
- The importance of soil health
- Soil analysis and assessment
- Soil organic matter
- Sampling for organic matter/carbon
- The role of soil compaction in reducing soil organic matter
Author: Fiona Mountain
Date Posted: 27th October 2026
