THE SOILS WE HAVE CHOSEN IN THIS STUDY REPRESENT 1.2 MILLION HA OF CLASS PRIME FARMLAND SPANNING THE ENTIRE COASTAL PLAIN REGION OF THE SOUTHEAST. THE AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUND ON THESE SOILS IS DIVERSE, HOWEVER THERE IS A UNIFYING FEATURE THAT ALL FARMERS ARE CHALLENGED WITH IN THIS REGION, LOW SOIL C AND LOW SOIL HEALTH. TRANSITION TO ORGANIC MANAGEMENT IS CHALLENGING DUE TO SHORT-TERM LIMITATIONS IN SOIL HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY BEFORE LONGER-TERM AGROECOSYSTEM BENEFITS CAN BE REALIZED. THIS CHALLENGE IS EXACERBATED BY THE SANDY SOILS AND WARM CLIMATE OF THE SOUTHEASTERN COASTAL PLAIN. WHEN MANAGED CONVENTIONALLY, THESE SOILS HAVE VERY LOW (&LT;1%) CONCENTRATIONS OF ORGANIC MATTER. YET, PRELIMINARY DATA FROM THE SOIL SURVEY SHOW THAT REFORESTED SITES HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED SOC (45-200%), THEREFORE THERE IS CLEARLY POTENTIAL FOR THESE SOILS TO RETAIN MORE C. BY MOST SOIL HEALTH METRICS, WHICH ARE STRONGLY CORRELATED TO SOIL ORGANIC CARBON (SOC) CONTENT, THESE SOILS ARE CONSIDERED UNHEALTHY AND MAY REMAIN IN A POOR STATE OF SOIL HEALTH FOR A SUBSTANTIAL PERIOD AFTER TRANSITION. DETERMINING THE POTENTIAL OF SOUTHEASTERN COASTAL PLAIN SOILS TO ACCRUE C, DEFINING POSSIBLE RATES OF SEQUESTRATION, AND IDENTIFYING PRACTICES THAT CAN ACCELERATE SHORT-TERM GAINS CAN HELP GUIDE THE TRANSITION TO ORGANIC MANAGEMENT. THEREFORE, THE GOAL OF THIS INTEGRATED RESEARCH, EXTENSION AND EDUCATION INITIATIVE IS TO DEVELOP AN UNDERSTANDING OF SOIL CARBON AND SOIL HEALTH ACCRUAL OVER TIME IN ORGANICALLY MANAGED FIELDS IN THE CHARACTERISTICALLY LOW-C SOILS OF THE COASTAL PLAIN REGION OF THE SOUTHEAST. OUR TWO-PRONGED APPROACH WILL USE ON-FARM SAMPLING AND CONTROLLED FIELD EXPERIMENTS TO UNDERSTAND SOIL C AND SOIL HEALTH DYNAMICS FROM THE ONSET OF TRANSITION TO ORGANIC INTO THE LONG-TERM (15+ YEARS). FIELD AND ON-FARM EXPERIMENTS WILL ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING FOUR OBJECTIVES: 1) DETERMINE A BASELINE SOIL CARBON ACCRUAL RATE IN THE REGION BY COMPARING PAIRED CONVENTIONAL AGRICULTUREAND AFFORESTED SITES; 2) ASSESS SOIL CARBON AND SOIL HEALTH INDICATORS ON 20 ORGANICALLY MANAGED FIELDS ALONG A CHRONOSEQUENCE FROM 1 TO 20+ YRS FROM TRANSITION TO ORGANIC; 3) ESTABLISH A FIELD EXPERIMENT AT TWO SITES, EVALUATING DIFFERENT CARBON INPUT STRATEGIES TO JUMP START SOIL C ACCRUAL AND SOIL HEALTH METRICS FOR COMPARISON TO THE BASELINE AND SAMPLED CHRONOSEQUENCE OF ORGANIC FARMS; AND 4) EDUCATE RESEARCHERS, FARMERS, STUDENTS AND EXTENSION AGENTS THROUGH AN INTEGRATED OUTREACH PROGRAM, HIGHLIGHTING LONG-TERM OUTCOMES AND SHORT-TERM STRATEGIES FOR ACCELERATED SOIL HEALTH IMPROVEMENT DURING TRANSITION. OUR RESULTS WILL PROVIDE KEY INSIGHTS ON SOIL C STOCKS IN ORGANIC FARMS WITHIN THIS REGION AND HELP DETERMINE WHICH C INPUT STRATEGIES COULD IMPROVE SOIL HEALTH RAPIDLY DURING THE CHALLENGING TRANSITION PERIOD TO ORGANIC.?