This research project will establish and integrate benchmarks of soybean sustainability in Illinois using soil health, water quality and climate-smart metrics. By evaluating metrices across a range of soil health management practices – which double as climate-smart practices – and across regions of Illinois, we will identify and deliver sustainability benchmarks customized for our state’s diverse soybean production systems. Quantifying nutrient and carbon footprints in a comprehensive manner will provide a tangible basis for informing soil health management in soybean production, position the sustainability of Illinois soybean in national and global markets, and lay the foundation for Illinois soybeans to capitalize on rapidly emerging carbon markets. To achieve this, we will evaluate multiple sustainability outcomes at field experiment sites that represent Illinois soil-climate regions. At each site, replicated soil health management treatments will be evaluated for the soybean phase in two soybean rotation systems. Soil health indicators (biological, chemical, physical), nutrient losses by leaching, soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – including high CO2-equivalency gases of CH4 and N2O – will be measured to quantify soil, water quality, and climate footprints across systems. By establishing benchmarks of sustainability and quantifying how soil health practices impact soil, water quality and climate-smart metrics, this work will deliver an evidence-based foundation for valorizing Illinois soybeans in the global market and for carbon markets as a climate-smart commodity, which according to USDA is an agricultural commodity produced by practices that reduce GHG emissions and/or sequester carbon. Soybean-specific soil health practices that double as water quality-protective practices, in particular cover cropping and conservation tillage, can offer a third benefit: carbon credits. Illinois and the greater Midwest have strong but relatively unquantified potential for carbon credits by increasing soil carbon and decreasing GHG emissions by these two practices. This potential is likely to be greater for soybean relative to corn given greater adaptability of soybean to reduced or no-tillage and cover cropping, and the absence of nitrogen fertilization that otherwise typically entails appreciable N2O emissions. However, variability in soil and cropping systems can markedly influence soybean’s net carbon footprint, which should be balanced with yield outcomes to comprehensively gauge environmental footprints. This work will do so for Illinois.

We will evaluate multiple sustainability outcomes at field experiment sites that represent Illinois soil-climate regions. At each site, replicated soil health management treatments will be evaluated for the soybean phase in two soybean rotation systems. Soil health indicators (biological, chemical, physical), nutrient losses by leaching, soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions - including high CO2-equivalency gases of CH4 and N2O – will be measured to quantify soil, water quality, and climate footprints across systems.

This work will deliver a comprehensive assessment of soil health, water quality and climate footprints of Illinois soybean across management practices and regions, providing new-found knowledge to producers, documentation of environmental stewardship and climate-smart potential to policy makers, and evidence-based valorization to markets. Quantifying the triplestack of sustainability benchmarks will support the profitability and competitiveness of Illinois soybean from agronomic, marketing, and policy perspectives: soil health, water quality, and carbon footprint (as CO2 equivalents). While there has been research on soil health in soybean production systems as a function of cover cropping and conservation tillage, water quality benefits are relatively less quantified, and still less an assessment of carbon footprint that accounts for both soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions necessary to enable climate-smart commodification of our state’s soybeans.

Ultimately, this work will deliver practice-based recommendations for soybean producers interested in soil health improvement and seeking potential carbon credits, and enable marketing of Illinois soybeans in tangible metrics of soil health, water quality, and climate footprints to increase competitivity of this commodity.