System and method for measuring and estimating carbon in soils and wetlands

Abstract

The invention belongs to the technical field of environmental monitoring of soils and wetlands. It solves the technical problem of autonomously and continuously measuring, at low cost, the carbon dioxide flux in soil in the field, avoiding dependence on spot laboratory measurements, atmospheric carbon dioxide sensors, and indirect estimates obtained by satellite. The system comprises a polytetrafluoroethylene soil sealing chamber coupled to a non-dispersive infrared sensor that measures the carbon dioxide concentration; a low-power computing unit that transmits the data via a low-power wide area network; and a recurrent neural network model with long- and short-term memory that merges the measured flux with a vegetation index obtained by satellite to estimate the soil's organic carbon balance. The primary use is the generation of carbon sequestration and release data in soils and wetlands.