Soil Health Institute

--------- SOIL HEALTH INSTITUTE: NEW CONDITIONAL SMARTFARM AWARD. CONTROL NUMBER: 2250-1530 TITLE: ''A RAPID IN-FIELD SYSTEM TO MEASURE DEEP SOIL C STOCK AND FLUX'' ----------

NCE TO 12/31/2021, COVID 19

DEMONSTRATION AND EVALUATION OF THE OPTIS TECHNOLOGY AS A COMPONENT OF AN MRV PLATFORM FOR COST EFFECTIVE AND SCALABLE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES MARKET

**AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** SOIL HEALTH MANAGEMENT IS CRUCIAL FOR CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE IN COTTON FARMING, ENHANCING SOIL-WATER-PLANT DYNAMICS BY BOOSTING AVAILABLE WATER FOR PLANTS, IMPROVING WATER INFILTRATION, AND OPTIMIZING WATER DISTRIBUTION. TRADITIONAL FIELD EXPERIMENTS, WHILE VALUABLE, ARE EXPENSIVE AND SLOW. MODELING OFFERS A FASTER, RESOURCE-EFFICIENT ALTERNATIVE TO EXPLORE SOIL HEALTH AND CROP MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES. HOWEVER, CURRENT MODELS LACK ACCURATE REPRESENTATIONS OF SOIL HEALTH IMPACTS, LEAVING UNCERTAINTIES ABOUT ITS ROLE IN CLIMATE ADAPTATION FOR COTTON. OUR AIM IS TO IDENTIFY DROUGHT CONDITIONS WHERE SOIL HEALTH PRACTICES CAN COUNTERACT CLIMATE CHANGE'S IMPACT ON COTTON YIELDS. WE HYPOTHESIZE THAT INTEGRATING REALISTIC SOIL HEALTH EFFECTS INTO THE DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR AGROTECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (DSSAT) WILL REVEAL SPECIFIC DROUGHT INDICES AT WHICH SOIL HEALTH MANAGEMENT OFFSETS THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON YIELDS. WE'LL ASSESS HOW SOIL HEALTH PRACTICES AND INCREASES IN SOIL ORGANIC CARBON (SOC) INFLUENCE DSSAT'S SOIL WATER BALANCE, USING NEW FORMULAS THAT LINK SOC GAINS TO HIGHER PLANT-AVAILABLE WATER. OUR RESEARCH WILL PINPOINT THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH SOIL HEALTH MANAGEMENT AND SOC IMPROVEMENTS ENHANCE COTTON'S CLIMATE RESILIENCE. BY SIMULATING DIFFERENT SCENARIOS ACROSS FIVE KEY COTTON STATES, WE'LL ILLUSTRATE THE POTENTIAL YIELD BENEFITS OF HIGHER SOC UNDER TWO CLIMATE CHANGE PROJECTIONS. THIS WORK AIMS TO FORECAST THE CLIMATE RESILIENCE OF COTTON CULTIVATION THAT PROMOTES SOIL HEALTH AND CARBON SEQUESTRATION.

ECONOMICS OF SOIL HEALTH SYSTEMS TO ENHANCE ADOPTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS