Dr. Salvatore Calabrese - Dynamic multiscale soil modeling for climate-smart management of soil and water resources

Overview

As global warming and shifting rainfall patterns threaten soil and water resources, sustainable land management—especially in agriculture—is crucial for enhancing resource use efficiency as well as mitigating climate change. Addressing these challenges necessitates a deep understanding of the dynamic, multiscale interactions between water and carbon cycles in soils. However, decision support tools and models often oversimplify the soil as a rigid, homogeneous medium, failing to capture its complex responses to climate change and land use and leading to suboptimal management solutions. This presentation highlights advances in understanding of the soil as an integrated physical, biological, and geochemical system that evolves under climate and agricultural management pressures. Leveraging data from multiple platforms (experiments, in-situ sensors, remote sensing) and mathematical modeling tools (nonlinear dynamics, scaling), we present approaches to conceptualize and model from microbial activity in soil microsites up to the dynamics of soil biophysical properties and water and carbon cycles at the field scale. These insights inform the development of holistic practices that integrate water (e.g., irrigation) and carbon management for sustainable land use in a changing climate.