Elucidating soil carbon dynamics for climate change adaptation and mitigation tradeoff analysis at a landscape scale

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A key strategy to improve the resiliency of agricultural production and also reduce the impact of agriculture on climate change (i.e. adaptation and mitigation) is the adoption of beneficial management practices (BMPs) that increase soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. However, the magnitude of this potential is unclear and recent work indicates SOC losses due to increasing temperatures may be higher than previously expected. To resolve this uncertainty a number of questions need to be addressed at multiple spatial and temporal scales. At the field scale, questions remain about the dynamics of SOC in relation to various environmental (e.g. temperature, precipitation) and management factors (e.g. tillage, land use change). Factors affecting rates of SOC loss are poorly understood as is the rate that SOC can be regained or at what concentration gains will level off. At the landscape scale it is unclear how effectively process-models predict long-term changes in SOC given BMP configurations and land-use change and whether new modeling approaches can improve the accuracy of simulations.