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Abstract:
The natural capacity of the terrestrial landscape to capture and store carbon from the
atmosphere can be used in cultivated systems to maximize the climate change mitigation
potential of agricultural regions. A combination of inherent soil carbon storage potential,
conservation management, and rhizosphere inputs should be considered when making
landscape‐level decisions about agriculture if climate change mitigation is an important
goal. However, the ability to accurately predict soil organic carbon accumulation following
management change in the tropics is currently limited by the commonly available
tools developed in more temperate systems, a gap that must be addressed locally in order
to facilitate these types of landscape‐level decisions. Here, we use a case study in Hawaii
to demonstrate multiple approaches to measuring and simulating soil carbon changes
after the implementation of zero‐tillage cultivation of perennial grasses following more
than a century of intensive sugarcane cultivation. We identify advancements needed to
overcome the barriers to potential monitoring and projection protocols for soil carbon storage at our site and other similar sites.
