Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** effective soil management is…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** effective soil management is crucial for agricultural production, climate change mitigation, and adaptation, and the provision of ecosystem services. Site-specific soil management is gaining significant attention with the emergence of digital soil mapping and remote sensing technologies. Additionally, the growing interest in soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and the soil carbon trading industry as a climate change mitigation strategy has accentuated the need for site-specific soil monitoring and management. However, the success of such soil management protocols depends on adequate field soil observations that accurately capture the spatial variability of the soil landscape. We, therefore, propose to integrate open-source geospatial information, including high-resolution digital elevation model data (e.g., lidar), gridded soil survey information (e.g., purdue soilexplorer), and time-series satellite images (e.g., sentinel) for the spatial optimization of soil sampling design. This integration will significantly improve the cost-efficiency and accuracy of predictive soil mapping and help precision soil management. Moreover, we will develop an automatic AI-based modeling tool for monitoring SOC changes based on input field observations and geospatial information. During the seed phase, we will develop and evaluate the proposed methodology at purdue research farms and several operational farms in northern indiana and illinois. The validated sampling optimization and predictive soil carbon models will be incorporated into a publicly accessible prototype software application. Following the seed phase, we aim to expand the tool for regional and state-wide applications in precision soil management and climate-smart agriculture. The research produces innovative, open-source tools to support sustainable soil management and resilient agroecosystems.