Soil, Soil Health, Food Security, Ecosystem Services and Beyond

Soil, the cornerstone of food security and environmental quality, has recently received increased attention due to the soil health movement. Despite its importance, it wasn't until the devastating Dust Bowl of the 1930s that attention was properly focused on soil conservation. Following this environmental disaster, the U.S. government formed the Soil Conservation Service (now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service or NRCS) in 1935, tasked specifically with promoting soil conservation practices. This organization also educated and incentivized producers about the adoption and benefits of soil health conservation. In the early 1970s and 1980s, soil scientists began to investigate the impact of management practices on soil health, with the primary focus on soil chemistry and physics. This was often referred to as soil quality. However, with the recent renewed attention on soil health, soil biology has garnered significant focus. This is crucial, given the critical role microbes play in soil carbon, soil nutrient dynamics and crop productivity. Despite this, there remain important challenges that need to be addressed. Soil conservation and management is essential in this century to protect soil, a finite resource. Nevertheless, several critical questions need to be answered to promote soil conservation practices and to gain widespread acceptance and adoption.

In our quest to determine the extent of soil degradation and the impact of conservation management on soil improvement,?we developed the concept of a 'soil health gap'. This represents the difference in soil health indicators when comparing cultivated land to native lands (reference sites).?The complexity of this concept, however, became apparent when we began collecting samples on the ground in collaboration with the NRCS. We found that each soil's inherent potential differed, depending on its pedogenetic properties (soil texture) and climatic conditions (precipitation). Choosing a reference site in eastern Nebraska, where soils have a higher clay content and precipitation, and then using it as a comparison for western Nebraska, creates an unachievable gap.?Therefore, we developed a land classification unit, the 'Cropland Reference Ecological Unit'. This accounts for soil heterogeneity and climate variations to divide the land into zones where the soil health potential is uniform. Like all research, challenges, and questions are inevitable and, in some respects, add an element of intrigue. Having calculated the soil health gap while considering each soil's inherent potential, we're now contemplating the next steps and how to best utilize this data. At the moment, we are tackling three further questions.?First, once a gap has been identified, how do we set attainable, realistic soil health goals? Second, if we fail to find any appropriate reference sites, how do we address this issue??In response, we're categorizing lands based on their use and management, and creating land suitability groups for comparative soil health studies. Lastly, we're investigating whether improved soil health also results in increased crop productivity and return on investment.

Obtaining resources and funding for innovative, uncharted initiatives as such can be challenging. Success may sometimes seem elusive, even illusory, but we must strive to answer these questions for a better future and to leave healthy soil for our future generations.?In a recent survey conducted with the Nebraska Healthy Soils Task Force, we found that many producers are keen on improving their soil health so they can leave healthier soil for their children and grandchildren.

To summarize, perspectives on the future of soil health research can differ significantly. However, in my view, we should focus more on the following essential areas:

1. Investigating the functional relationship between changes in the soil system and ecosystem services. For instance, if a specific microbial community alters due to certain management practices, what are the impacts on ecosystem services? We need to ascertain whether such changes influence crop productivity, carbon sequestration, or even greenhouse gas emissions.
2. Establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between soil health indicators and crop productivity. This should be followed by developing crop-response curves. While adopting soil health measures is important, quantifying the return on investment is equally essential.
3. Identifying the soil health gap, taking into account the natural heterogeneity of soil and climatic conditions.
4. Assessing the distribution of economic benefits, especially arising from the monetization of ecosystem services. This should be based on the inherent potential of different soil types. For example, sandy soil cannot store as much carbon as clay by its very nature. Yet, a farmer working on sandy soil in a lower precipitation area may adopt the same conservation practices as another on clay soil in a higher precipitation region. Therefore, rewards should be region-specific and should take into account the unique potential of each parcel of land.
5. Understanding carbon and nitrogen cycles in the soil from a systems perspective. This requires examining the interplay among climate, plants, soil, and microbes. It's crucial for understanding carbon offset trade-offs and for prioritizing management strategies and funding allocations.
6. Conducting process-based research on soil microbes and their impact on soil health and carbon dynamics. Developing process-based models that incorporate microbes as critical components of equation is important.

Although these questions might seem extensive at this point, the rapid progress in science, particularly the interdisciplinary development of soil science combined with the application of modern sophisticated bio-physicochemical analysis, genomics, statistics, computing, spectroscopy, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence, will make answering them an achievable objective.

If you have any questions or want to collaborate or support our program, you can reach out to me at:?[email protected]

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