Articles | Volume 6, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-541-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-541-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Soil: the great connector of our lives now and beyond COVID-19
Department of Environment and Soil Science, Universitat de Lleida, 25198 Lleida, Spain
Lucia H. C. dos Anjos
Department of Soils, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, CEP 23.897-000, Seropédica, Brazil
Rafla Attia
Direction Générale de l'Aménagement et de Conservation des Terres Agricoles, Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Ressources Hydrauliques et de la Pêche, 1002 Tunis, Tunisia
Megan Balks
School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3216, New Zealand
Adalberto Benavides-Mendoza
Department of Horticulture, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro, Saltillo 25315, Mexico
Martha M. Bolaños-Benavides
Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation – AGROSAVIA, Centro de Investigación
Tibaitata, Mosquera, Colombia
Costanza Calzolari
CNR – Institute of BioEconomy, 50029 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Lydia M. Chabala
Department of Soil Science, University of Zambia, P.O. Box 32379, Lusaka, Zambia
Peter C. de Ruiter
Biometris, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, the Netherlands
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Samuel Francke-Campaña
National Forest Corporation, Ministry of Agriculture, Santiago, Chile
Fernando García Préchac
Soil and Water Management and Conservation, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de la República, Montevideo 12900, Uruguay
Ellen R. Graber
The Volcani Center, ARO, Rishon LeZion 7505101, Israel
Siosiua Halavatau
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Food & Fisheries, Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Kutaiba M. Hassan
Ministry of Agriculture, Baghdad, Iraq
Edmond Hien
Joseph Ki-Zerbo University, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Ke Jin
Grassland Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hohhot 010020, Inner Mongolia, China
Mohammad Khan
Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, The University of
Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan
Maria Konyushkova
Eurasian Center for Food Security, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Moscow, Russia
David A. Lobb
Department of Soil Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada
Matshwene E. Moshia
Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, South Africa
Jun Murase
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
Generose Nziguheba
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Central Africa Hub Coordination Office, Nairobi, Kenya
Ashok K. Patra
ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 462038, India
Gary Pierzynski
College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Natalia Rodríguez Eugenio
Global Soil Partnership, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Ronald Vargas Rojas
Global Soil Partnership, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
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Nalumino L. Namwanyi, Maurice J. Hutton, Ikabongo Mukumbuta, Lydia M. Chabala, Clarence Chongo, Stalin Sichinga, and R. Murray Lark
SOIL, 10, 887–911, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-887-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-887-2024, 2024
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We examined historical sources for the Ecological Survey of Zambia, 1932–1943. This found how normal erosion gave rise to soil variation in the upper Zambezi valley, which was expressed in vegetation patterns which African farmers interpreted to select sites for cultivation and traditional production systems. The survey challenged colonial assumptions about traditional practices. We identify lessons for modern-day approaches to traditional agricultural knowledge in Africa.
Purbasha Mistry, Irena F. Creed, Charles G. Trick, Eric Enanga, and David A. Lobb
Biogeosciences, 21, 4699–4715, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4699-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4699-2024, 2024
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Precise and accurate estimates of wetland organic carbon sequestration rates are crucial to track the progress of climate action goals through effective carbon budgeting. Radioisotope dating methods using cesium-137 (137Cs) and lead-210 (210Pb) are needed to provide temporal references for these estimations. The choice between using 137Cs or 210Pb, or their combination, depends on respective study objectives, with careful consideration of factors such as dating range and estimation complexity.
Jun Murase, Kannika Sajjaphan, Chatprawee Dechjiraratthanasiri, Ornuma Duangngam, Rawiwan Chotiphan, Wutthida Rattanapichai, Wakana Azuma, Makoto Shibata, Poonpipope Kasemsap, and Daniel Epron
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2937, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2937, 2024
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Tropical forest soils are vital for methane uptake, but deforestation and agriculture can alter soil methane oxidation. An experiment in Thailand shows that fertilization significantly suppresses methane oxidation in rubber plantation soils, affecting depths up to 60 cm. Without fertilization, deeper soil layers (below 10 cm) actively oxidize methane. These findings suggest that fertilization negatively impacts the methane uptake capacity of deep-layer soils in rubber plantations.
Marcos R. C. Cordeiro, Kang Liang, Henry F. Wilson, Jason Vanrobaeys, David A. Lobb, Xing Fang, and John W. Pomeroy
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 5917–5931, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5917-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5917-2022, 2022
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This study addresses the issue of increasing interest in the hydrological impacts of converting cropland to perennial forage cover in the Canadian Prairies. By developing customized models using the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling (CRHM) platform, this long-term (1992–2013) modelling study is expected to provide stakeholders with science-based information regarding the hydrological impacts of land use conversion from annual crop to perennial forage cover in the Canadian Prairies.
Marco Pfeiffer, José Padarian, Rodrigo Osorio, Nelson Bustamante, Guillermo Federico Olmedo, Mario Guevara, Felipe Aburto, Francisco Albornoz, Monica Antilén, Elías Araya, Eduardo Arellano, Maialen Barret, Juan Barrera, Pascal Boeckx, Margarita Briceño, Sally Bunning, Lea Cabrol, Manuel Casanova, Pablo Cornejo, Fabio Corradini, Gustavo Curaqueo, Sebastian Doetterl, Paola Duran, Mauricio Escudey, Angelina Espinoza, Samuel Francke, Juan Pablo Fuentes, Marcel Fuentes, Gonzalo Gajardo, Rafael García, Audrey Gallaud, Mauricio Galleguillos, Andrés Gomez, Marcela Hidalgo, Jorge Ivelic-Sáez, Lwando Mashalaba, Francisco Matus, Francisco Meza, Maria de la Luz Mora, Jorge Mora, Cristina Muñoz, Pablo Norambuena, Carolina Olivera, Carlos Ovalle, Marcelo Panichini, Aníbal Pauchard, Jorge F. Pérez-Quezada, Sergio Radic, José Ramirez, Nicolás Riveras, Germán Ruiz, Osvaldo Salazar, Iván Salgado, Oscar Seguel, Maria Sepúlveda, Carlos Sierra, Yasna Tapia, Francisco Tapia, Balfredo Toledo, José Miguel Torrico, Susana Valle, Ronald Vargas, Michael Wolff, and Erick Zagal
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 457–468, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-457-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-457-2020, 2020
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The CHLSOC database is the biggest soil organic carbon (SOC) database that has been compiled for Chile yet, comprising 13 612 data points. This database is the product of the compilation of numerous sources including unpublished and difficult-to-access data, allowing us to fill numerous spatial gaps where no SOC estimates were publicly available before. The values of SOC compiled in CHLSOC have a wide range, reflecting the variety of ecosystems that exists in Chile.
Jaroslav Obu, Sebastian Westermann, Gonçalo Vieira, Andrey Abramov, Megan Ruby Balks, Annett Bartsch, Filip Hrbáček, Andreas Kääb, and Miguel Ramos
The Cryosphere, 14, 497–519, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-497-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-497-2020, 2020
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Little is known about permafrost in the Antarctic outside of the few research stations. We used a simple equilibrium permafrost model to estimate permafrost temperatures in the whole Antarctic. The lowest permafrost temperature on Earth is −36 °C in the Queen Elizabeth Range in the Transantarctic Mountains. Temperatures are commonly between −23 and −18 °C in mountainous areas rising above the Antarctic Ice Sheet, between −14 and −8 °C in coastal areas, and up to 0 °C on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Jun Murase, Atsuko Sugimoto, Ryo Shingubara, Tomoki Morozumi, Shinya Takano, and Trofim C. Maximov
Biogeosciences Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2019-98, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2019-98, 2019
Manuscript not accepted for further review
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We determined the potential methane oxidation rate of the wetland soils in northeastern Siberia in situ or immediately after sampling to avoid the possible influence of sample storage. The soils had a high methane oxidation potential even under anoxic and frozen conditions, while the plant-associated methane oxidation is negligible. The results show the high tolerance and resilience of methane oxidation to the unfavorable conditions, contributing to understanding the methane cycle in the Arctic.
Ryo Shingubara, Atsuko Sugimoto, Jun Murase, Go Iwahana, Shunsuke Tei, Maochang Liang, Shinya Takano, Tomoki Morozumi, and Trofim C. Maximov
Biogeosciences, 16, 755–768, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-755-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-755-2019, 2019
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(1) Wetting event with extreme precipitation increased methane emission from wetland, especially two summers later, despite the decline in water level after the wetting. (2) Isotopic compositions of methane in soil pore water suggested enhancement of production and less significance of oxidation in the following two summers after the wetting event. (3) Duration of water saturation in the active layer may be important for predicting methane emission after a wetting event in permafrost ecosystems.
Mario Guevara, Guillermo Federico Olmedo, Emma Stell, Yusuf Yigini, Yameli Aguilar Duarte, Carlos Arellano Hernández, Gloria E. Arévalo, Carlos Eduardo Arroyo-Cruz, Adriana Bolivar, Sally Bunning, Nelson Bustamante Cañas, Carlos Omar Cruz-Gaistardo, Fabian Davila, Martin Dell Acqua, Arnulfo Encina, Hernán Figueredo Tacona, Fernando Fontes, José Antonio Hernández Herrera, Alejandro Roberto Ibelles Navarro, Veronica Loayza, Alexandra M. Manueles, Fernando Mendoza Jara, Carolina Olivera, Rodrigo Osorio Hermosilla, Gonzalo Pereira, Pablo Prieto, Iván Alexis Ramos, Juan Carlos Rey Brina, Rafael Rivera, Javier Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Ronald Roopnarine, Albán Rosales Ibarra, Kenset Amaury Rosales Riveiro, Guillermo Andrés Schulz, Adrian Spence, Gustavo M. Vasques, Ronald R. Vargas, and Rodrigo Vargas
SOIL, 4, 173–193, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-4-173-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-4-173-2018, 2018
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We provide a reproducible multi-modeling approach for SOC mapping across Latin America on a country-specific basis as required by the Global Soil Partnership of the United Nations. We identify key prediction factors for SOC across each country. We compare and test different methods to generate spatially explicit predictions of SOC and conclude that there is no best method on a quantifiable basis.
B. Vanlauwe, K. Descheemaeker, K. E. Giller, J. Huising, R. Merckx, G. Nziguheba, J. Wendt, and S. Zingore
SOIL, 1, 491–508, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-491-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-491-2015, 2015
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The "local adaptation" component of integrated soil fertility management operates at field and farm scale. At field scale, the application of implements other than improved germplasm, fertilizer, and organic inputs can enhance the agronomic efficiency (AE) of fertilizer. Examples include the application of lime, secondary and micronutrients, water harvesting, and soil tillage practices. At farm scale, targeting fertilizer within variable farms is shown to significantly affect AE of fertilizer.
Related subject area
Soils and food security
Targeting the soil quality and soil health concepts when aiming for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the EU Green Deal
Soil fertility along toposequences of the East India Plateau and implications for productivity, fertiliser use, and sustainability
Global meta-analysis of the relationship between soil organic matter and crop yields
Refining physical aspects of soil quality and soil health when exploring the effects of soil degradation and climate change on biomass production: an Italian case study
Organic wastes from bioenergy and ecological sanitation as a soil fertility improver: a field experiment in a tropical Andosol
Antonello Bonfante, Angelo Basile, and Johan Bouma
SOIL, 6, 453–466, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-453-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-453-2020, 2020
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Soil health is an important term in the international policy arena when considering soil contributions to sustainable development. We propose a measurement method, lacking so far, and explore differences within the term soil quality. The latter describes the inherent properties of soils, while soil health focuses on actual health. The procedure is illustrated for three Italian soil types, also showing the effects of climate change, demonstrating that each soil is significantly different.
Peter S. Cornish, Ashok Kumar, and Sudipta Das
SOIL, 6, 325–336, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-325-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-325-2020, 2020
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We evaluated soil fertility in seven watersheds on the East India Plateau, finding that soils are acid and infertile, with low chemical fertiliser use, and organic nutrient recycling is insufficient to maintain soil fertility. This leads to inefficient rainfall use and low yields. Fertiliser rates need to increase greatly, notably in P and K. This will challenge risk-averse subsistence farmers. Field-specific fertiliser regimes are needed despite consistent fertility trends along toposequences.
Emily E. Oldfield, Mark A. Bradford, and Stephen A. Wood
SOIL, 5, 15–32, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-15-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-15-2019, 2019
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In this paper, we quantify the global-level relationship between soil organic matter and crop yield. We find that greater concentrations of soil organic matter are associated with greater yields and that increases in yields saturate around 2 % SOC. Using the relationship that we generate, we then provide an estimate of the potential for soil organic matter management to reduce global yield gaps for two of the most important staple crops (maize and wheat) grown worldwide.
Antonello Bonfante, Fabio Terribile, and Johan Bouma
SOIL, 5, 1–14, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-1-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-1-2019, 2019
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This study is restricted to soil physical aspects of soil quality and health with the objective to define procedures with worldwide rather than only regional applicability, reflecting modern developments in soil physical research and focusing on important questions regarding possible effects of soil degradation and climate change.
Ariane Krause, Thomas Nehls, Eckhard George, and Martin Kaupenjohann
SOIL, 2, 147–162, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-147-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-147-2016, 2016
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In a field experiment in Tanzania, we used substrates from local projects as soil amenders for intercropping relevant local crops, aiming to advance the practical application of known principles for smallholder agriculture in SSA, i.e. biochar and biogas application and EcoSan practices. We studied the short-term effects on crop productivity, plant nutrition and soil properties. By mitigating P scarcity and acidification, yields were increased by up to 400 % compared to the control.
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Short summary
Humanity depends on the existence of healthy soils, both for the production of food and for ensuring a healthy, biodiverse environment. In the face of global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, a sustainable soil management strategy is essential to ensure food security based on more diverse, locally oriented, and resilient food production systems through improving access to land, sound land use planning, sustainable soil management, enhanced research, and investment in education and extension.
Humanity depends on the existence of healthy soils, both for the production of food and for...