TY - JOUR
T1 - Ensuring planetary survival
T2 - the centrality of organic carbon in balancing the multifunctional nature of soils
AU - Kopittke, Peter M.
AU - Berhe, Asmeret Asefaw
AU - Carrillo, Yolima
AU - Cavagnaro, Timothy R.
AU - Chen, Deli
AU - Chen, Qing Lin
AU - Román Dobarco, Mercedes
AU - Dijkstra, Feike A.
AU - Field, Damien J.
AU - Grundy, Michael J.
AU - He, Ji Zheng
AU - Hoyle, Frances C.
AU - Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid
AU - Lam, Shu Kee
AU - Marschner, Petra
AU - Martinez, Cristina
AU - McBratney, Alex B.
AU - McDonald-Madden, Eve
AU - Menzies, Neal W.
AU - Mosley, Luke M.
AU - Mueller, Carsten W.
AU - Murphy, Daniel V.
AU - Nielsen, Uffe N.
AU - O’Donnell, Anthony G.
AU - Pendall, Elise
AU - Pett-Ridge, Jennifer
AU - Rumpel, Cornelia
AU - Young, Iain M.
AU - Minasny, Budiman
N1 - Funding Information:
Work at LLNL was performed under the auspices of the US DOE OBER under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 award #SCW1632.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Not only do soils provide 98.7% of the calories consumed by humans, they also provide numerous other functions upon which planetary survivability closely depends. However, our continuously increasing focus on soils for biomass provision (food, fiber, and energy) through intensive agriculture is rapidly degrading soils and diminishing their capacity to deliver other vital functions. These tradeoffs in soil functionality–the increased provision of one function at the expense of other critical planetary functions–are the focus of this review. We examine how land-use change for biomass provision has decreased the ability of soils to regulate the carbon pool and thereby contribute profoundly to climate change, to cycle the nutrients that sustain plant growth and ecosystem health, to protect the soil biodiversity upon which many other functions depend, and to cycle the Earth’s freshwater supplies. We also examine how this decreasing ability of soil to provide these other functions can be halted and reversed. Despite the complexity and the interconnectedness of soil functions, we show that soil organic carbon plays a central role and is a master indicator for soil functioning and that we require a better understanding of the factors controlling the behavior and persistence of C in soils. Given the threats facing humanity and their economies, it is imperative that we recognize that Soil Security is itself an existential challenge and that we need to increase our focus on the multiple functions of soils for long-term human welfare and survivability of the planet.
AB - Not only do soils provide 98.7% of the calories consumed by humans, they also provide numerous other functions upon which planetary survivability closely depends. However, our continuously increasing focus on soils for biomass provision (food, fiber, and energy) through intensive agriculture is rapidly degrading soils and diminishing their capacity to deliver other vital functions. These tradeoffs in soil functionality–the increased provision of one function at the expense of other critical planetary functions–are the focus of this review. We examine how land-use change for biomass provision has decreased the ability of soils to regulate the carbon pool and thereby contribute profoundly to climate change, to cycle the nutrients that sustain plant growth and ecosystem health, to protect the soil biodiversity upon which many other functions depend, and to cycle the Earth’s freshwater supplies. We also examine how this decreasing ability of soil to provide these other functions can be halted and reversed. Despite the complexity and the interconnectedness of soil functions, we show that soil organic carbon plays a central role and is a master indicator for soil functioning and that we require a better understanding of the factors controlling the behavior and persistence of C in soils. Given the threats facing humanity and their economies, it is imperative that we recognize that Soil Security is itself an existential challenge and that we need to increase our focus on the multiple functions of soils for long-term human welfare and survivability of the planet.
KW - Carbon
KW - carbon sequestration
KW - ecosystem services
KW - Frederic Coulon and Lena Ma
KW - soil organic carbon (SOC)
KW - sustainable development goals
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122750928&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10643389.2021.2024484
DO - 10.1080/10643389.2021.2024484
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85122750928
SN - 1064-3389
VL - 52
SP - 4308
EP - 4324
JO - Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 23
ER -