Within the framework of soil survey and rapid global change there is a need to be able to accurately identify carbon stocks in soils and to measure how these pools change with time or land use.  In this study, we investigated how well two rapid laboratory methods (LOI and VNIR) estimated soil organic carbon contents compared to standard C:N analyzer . We compared methodology variability to spatial variability to investigate the relative contribution of each to the overall uncertainty of the estimated carbon pool within a single delineation.  Six common soil types in New England were investigated. Three were Inceptisols, two Spodosols, and one a Histosol.  Five pedons within a delineation of each soil type were sampled and analyzed for carbon content and bulk density. This presentation will discuss the results of the study and the implications of rapidly acquired metrics for identifying changes in carbon pools.