This study was constrained by the lack of paired pasture sites located adjacent to conifer tree plantations. This issue was addressed by pairing of broadleaf species with conifers as a standard of comparison. Another limitation to developing a better understanding of the change in belowground carbon is that trees typically have larger and longer-lived root systems than pastures. Therefore measuring soil carbon alone misses a significant pool of carbon in the belowground system. We attempted to address this by estimating root carbon based on aboveground biomass measurements. Pasture root biomass measurement was beyond the scope of this study. Root carbon estimates are labor and time intensive, and are often infeasible for large-scale field studies.