Finding Scaling Laws for Soil Carbon Transformations.

The flow of C atoms through soil organic matter drives biotic processes along the way. It is desirable to manage this flow in a way that we can, at the same time a) maintain ecosystem services and b) remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. The C flux management challenge involves three major scientific problem areas:
1. Detection: Identification of relevant C-flux components, measurement of their magnitude; 2. Mechanistic understanding: Development of algorithms to capture process dynamics and derive flux intensities; 3. Scaling and implementation: Use the above information to implement management strategies at the temporal and spatial scales relevant for society.
This presentation will offer a few thoughts on questions such as: Is there a scale that is particularly important for soil science – such as length, or time, or complexity? How does our mechanistic understanding of soil processes depend on the scale at which it was developed? What are difficulties in developing scaling laws to go across scales? Are developments such as multiscale materials modeling useful templates for soil research?