The potential for soil carbon (C) sequestration is extensive and heavily influenced by land management practices within global carbon pools. Approximately 40 % of soil C is stored as soil inorganic C (SIC) in pedogenic and lithogenic carbonate forms, particularly in semi-arid environments. However, when soil total carbon (STC) or soil inorganic carbon (SIC) is reported, soil C levels may be underestimated due to the partial or complete exclusion of coarse carbonate fragments (CCFs) during the screening process in soil sampling. Evaluating the role of CCFs is essential for understanding the variability in soil C related to sampling soils for C changes due to shifts in land management practices. A comparative study conducted on a glacial till landscape in north-central South Dakota examined the effects of land management on soil carbon stocks, including total carbon (STC), organic carbon (SOC), and inorganic carbon (SIC), with and without the inclusion of CCFs. Land management types (LMTs) studied included native grassland (NG), cropland field (CF), and 20-year-old Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grassland. Three replicate cores were collected to a depth of 1 m along a transect from a wetland border to the nearest landscape summit. Since very few studies account for the presence of CCFs in soil carbon analysis, we manually extracted visible CCFs from samples, often excluded during sample grinding, and analyzed them separately for STC, SIC, and SOC. The data showed significant increases of 12.8 % and 16 % per depth increment in STC and SIC, respectively, with minimal impact on SOC after adding the CCF-C mass back to the profile C stock. Among the three LMTs, NG stores the highest STC with the least change due to the CCFs. The CF exhibited the most significant STC increase after adding CCFs, followed by CRP. Notably, SOC tends to accumulate mainly in the top 30 cm of soil, while SIC dominates in deeper soil layers. Slope position had less impact than soil depth and LMT. This study underscores the need to revise soil sampling and processing protocols. It provides crucial insights into the importance of soil carbon associated with CCFs, contributing to current global carbon estimates.