Quantifying carbon and soil health on Audubon’s Conservation Ranching certified ranches

DESCRIPTION:

The objective of this project is to quantify the potential carbon and soil health benefits associated with Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program. To achieve this, we will leverage field samples collected from more than 80 ranches to determine the optimal sample size for improved quantification of SOC storage. Additionally, we will test algorithms and methods to establish a high-performance computing platform-based digital soil mapping approach for evaluating various soil health indicators. This unique broad-scale grassland dataset will be used to improve process-based modeling systems, enabling the simulation of long-term carbon dynamics and SOC changes associated with grassland restoration and conservation practices.