Climate change impacts on soil-water availability under different land management: forest and grasslands in MLRA 120

The ability to model the effect of climate change on soil-water availability and agricultural production is dependent on reliable estimation of hydrologic soil properties under different land management. Soil carbon (C) content has been linked to available water-holding capacity and hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), however these hydrologic soil properties are also dependent on other soil factors, including particle-size distribution and bulk density Rawls et al. (1983, 2003). We will apply established equations to estimate these hydrologic soil properties for soils from the Shawnee Hills Loess Catenas Soil Systems project in MLRA 120 and compare these estimates to laboratory measured values. We will apply the same equations to samples and data collected from the Rapid Assessment of U.S. Soil Carbon (RaCA) in Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) 120 with the objective of incorporating these soil properties into a hydrologic model of soil-water storage in order to simulate changes due climate change under different land-management (forest, pasture, traditional agriculture, and conservation agriculture). This approach will incorporate previously supported NRCS research, including the well-characterized and well-instrumented Shawnee Hills Loess Catenas Soil Systems project and the RaCA site pedons in MLRA 120.