Soil carbon in cotton fields in northern New South Wales was studied to understand how much carbon is stored in the soil. Researchers took soil samples from a cotton field and nearby bushland to compare. They found that the cotton field had 78 tons of carbon per hectare, while the bushland had 136 tons. This means that 18.9 million tons of carbon have been lost from the soil due to cotton farming in NSW. The study also showed that organic carbon was higher in deeper soil layers and that inorganic carbon made up a larger proportion of total carbon than the global average. Overall, the total carbon pool in the cotton soils of NSW was estimated to be 44.8 million tons, with organic carbon making up 34.9 million tons and inorganic carbon 9.9 million tons.