Soiled soils

The planet's soils are under greater threat than ever before, at a time when we need to draw on their vital role to support life more than ever, warns an expert from the University of Sheffield in the journal Nature.

In some parts of the world, losses due to erosion are greatly outstripping the natural rate of soil formation; and the intensity of human activity is impacting the ability of soil to produce food, store carbon from the atmosphere, filter contamination from water supplies and maintain necessary biodiversity.

Because of growing demand for food, intensification of agriculture alone will put a huge strain on soils over the next few decades, and climate change adds to the challenge. Not only are nutrients being stripped away, but chemicals ocntinue to be added vigorously.

It becomes evident that what we need are rigorous forecasting methods to quantify and best utilise soil's natural capital, to assess options for maintaining or extending it, and to determine how the declines can be reversed. And we need these things well within a decade, as the team says.

Makes one wonder is there any part of the eco-system we 'wise wise humans' (homo sapiens sapiens) have left intact!