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EDITORIAL OPEN

Safeguarding our soils


Alarming rates of soil degradation highlight the fragility of this precious resource and call into question
our ability to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. World Soil Day, December
5th, celebrates the importance of soils and calls for increased awareness and action to safeguard soil
health and protect the prospects of a sustainable future.

T
horoughly mix crumbled rock, soil can take up to 1,000 years to form, yet
moisten with water, fold in only days to erode.
pockets of air, and add generous Natural drivers of soil degradation are
helpings of dead, decaying and exacerbated through human activities such
living organisms. While not as agriculture, deforestation, and urban
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particularly appetising, this is a recipe for development. Soil is essentially a non-


healthy soil, a unique and complex matrix renewable resource, much like fossil fuels,
of minerals and organic matter, vital for and once destroyed it is, for all practical
sustaining life on Earth. purposes, lost forever.
Healthy soils are essential for the It is now estimated that as much as one-
growth of crops, filtration of water, func- third of global soils are degraded, with up
tioning of ecosystems, and storage of vast to 970 million tons of soil lost annually to
amounts of carbon that would otherwise erosion through poor management prac-
escape to the atmosphere. They are also tices in Europe alone, and 24 billion tons
under threat. lost globally1. For less developed nations
While continuously where soil quality is already poor, the
formed through the consequences of soil degradation are stark.
“Healthy soils are essential for gradual erosion of Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa—where
rock, soil formation is nearly one in four people remain under-
the growth of crops, filtration of vastly outpaced by the nourished2 and 38% of children under the
water, functioning of rate of degradation. age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition3
Although the Holly- —has led to further nutrient depletion and
ecosystems, and storage of wood blockbuster ‘The low cereal yields. Soil erosion further
Martian’ featured Matt results in the loss of valuable carbon stores
vast amounts of carbon that Damon ingeniously from the soil matrix, with one recent study
would otherwise escape to the creating ‘soil’ in a day, estimating a cumulative global carbon debt
back on Earth, and of 133 billion tons since the dawn of
atmosphere. They are also back in reality, 1 cm of agriculture4.

under threat.”

Cecilie Arcurs/Getty

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 8: 1989 | DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02070-6 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1


EDITORIAL NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02070-6

Despite its importance and vulnerability, knowledge is essential if potential solutions publications/card/en/c/a0745c69-2412-4f56-afa9-
broad awareness of the plight of our soils is are to be successfully implemented. 6b011d2e0b71/.
poor. World Soil Day, celebrated annually Although many soil studies remain dis- 3. World Health Organization. Joint child malnutrition
estimate—Levels and trends (2017). http://www.
since 2014, seeks to change this. Through ciplinary and focussed on individual issues, who.int/nutgrowthdb/estimates2016/en/.
outreach and educational activities, the soil scientists are making an effort to shift 4. Sanderman, J. et al. Soil carbon debt of 12,000
Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) towards inter-disciplinary research, more years of human land use. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA
of the United Nations aims to draw holistic approaches in targeting multiple 114, 9575–9580 (2017).
attention to the importance of healthy soil SDGs at once and engaging with land-users, 5. United Nations. United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals. http://www.undp.org/content/
and the need for the sustainable manage- businesses and policymakers. Integrated undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.
ment of soil resources. approaches and the adoption of sustainable html.
The sustainable use and management of land management practices will be required 6. Keesstra, S. D. et al. The significance of soils and
soils will be intrinsic to the success of if global food security is to be achieved. soil science towards realization of the United
several of the United Nations’ Sustainable While there are many challenges to Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Soil 2,
111–128 (2016).
Development Goals (SDGs): food security overcome before the SDGs 2030 target, the 7. Sun, T. et al. Rapid electron transfer by the carbon
(SDG 2), health (SDG 3), water quality ambitious goals set out by the UN are not matrix in natural pyrogenic carbon. Nat. Commun.
(SDG 6), climate action (SDG 13) and unattainable. Sustainable management 8, 14873 (2017).
biodiversity (SDG 15)5. The soil science practices can reverse soil degradation and 8. Hagemann, N. et al. Organic coating on biochar
research community is very much aware of restore productivity. Success in this regard explains its nutrient retention and stimulation of
soil fertility. Nat. Commun. 8, 1089 (2017).
the central role they have to play if a sus- has been realised in Ethiopia and Rwanda, 9. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United
tainable society is to be achieved by 20306. where integrated soil fertility management Nations. Soil Organic Carbon: The Hidden
Encouraging progress is being made, with practices have led to land restoration in Potential (2017). http://www.fao.org/documents/
considerable advances in increasing soil recent years10. The SDGs represent an card/en/c/ed16dbf7-b777-4d07-8790-
fertility through soil amendments practices unprecedented opportunity to embrace 798604fd490a/.
10. Nugumbi, E. Continuing the wins in soil
such as the application of biochar—the use sustainability on a global scale and educa- health restoration in Africa. World Policy
of pyrolised biomass, essentially charcoal, tional initiatives such as World Soil Day Blog (2017). http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/
to enhance soil water and nutrient reten- are integral in setting events into motion 2017/02/14/continuing-wins-soil-health-
tion. Just this year, important insights have that will ensure the well-being of future restoration-africa.
been made into the biogeochemistry and generations and of our planet. The recipe
Open Access This article is licensed
fertilisation properties of this sustainable for the future very much needs to focus on under a Creative Commons Attribution
approach7,8. safeguarding healthy soils to achieve sus- 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,
In parallel to soil fertility efforts, a new tainable success. adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium
initiative has been launched to raise the or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the
awareness of soils as a potential climate original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the
Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were
mitigation tool. The proponents claim that
made. The images or other third party material in this
sequestering atmospheric CO2 in the form article are included in the article’s Creative Commons
of soil organic carbon by as little as 0.4% license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
per year has the potential to offset material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative
anthropogenic emissions (www.4p1000. References Commons license and your intended use is not permitted
org). The FAO is further promoting the 1. United Nations Convention to Combat by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you
Desertification. Global Land Outlook (2017). will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright
hidden potential of soil organic carbon,
https://global-land-outlook.squarespace.com/the- holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://
distilling the science into digestible infor- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
outlook/#the-bokk.
mation and thus facilitating the transfer of 2. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United
knowledge from the science domain to the Nations. Africa regional overview of food security
policy arena9. The transfer of such and nutrition (2017). http://www.fao.org/
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd, Part of Springer Nature 2017

2 NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 8: 1989 | DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02070-6 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications

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