According to the Soil Health Institute, healthy soil that is rich in carbon acts like a sponge to soak up rainfall and store it for crops. While farmers have known this for a long time, it has been hard for scientists to predict how much extra water farmers can expect when they use regenerative agriculture practices that improve soil carbon.

The work will utilize metagenomic and carbon data collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements. Metagenomics is the examination of genetic material outside of the environment.