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Research

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• The uncertain impacts of European land use policy on soil services: Vrebos, Dirk, et al. "The Impact of Policy Instruments on Soil Multifunctionality in the European Union." Sustainability 9.3 (2017): 407  http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/3/407 
   

• A new way to think about soil microbes and carbon: the microbial carbon pump https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170829091049.htm 
   

• Have you seen the International Union of Soil Sciences’s factsheets? The new one on the concept of soil security is out, and you can find them all here http://iuss.boku.ac.at/index.php?article_id=647
   

• Soils: The Foundation of Life Workshop proceedings-in-brief, which summarizes the workshop held at the US National Academy of Sciences in December 2016, is now online for free downloads.  Please visit https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24866/soils-the-foundation-of-life-proceedings-of-a-workshop-in or the website of the U.S. National Committee for Soils at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/biso/SS/index.htm to download your own electronic copy free of charge.

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• A new map, published in an open-access paper, tries to quantify how much energy is available to erode the land surface on a given spot globally. Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2017/08/18/how-many-continents-are-there/#efe36866732f
   

• On taking soil education and extension into the 21st century through greater inter-relations between soil science and soil managers https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/sssaj/pdfs/81/3/427 
   

• The EEA report ‘Landscapes in transition: an account of 25 years of land cover change in Europe,’ concludes that Europe has seen continued and accelerating shift from rural to urban use: https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/unsustainable-land-use-threatens-european-landscapes?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Landscapes%20in%20transition&utm_content=Landscapes%20in%20transition+CID_b6c7faec82d941e84a93a47944b0e9a1&utm_source=EEA%20Newsletter&utm_term=Read%20more

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Editorials

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• Viewpoints from the President of the International Union of Soil Sciences, the most recent one on the ecological cost of soil management practices: http://iuss.boku.ac.at/index.php?article_id=636

 

• Stop punishing soils with fertilisers http://e360.yale.edu/features/why-its-time-to-stop-punishing-our-soils-with-fertilizers-and-chemicals 

 

• To restore our soils, feed the microbes  https://theconversation.com/to-restore-our-soils-feed-the-microbes-79616?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterbutton 

 

• The rise of citizen soil science https://theconversation.com/open-soil-science-technology-is-helping-us-discover-the-mysteries-under-our-feet-81727

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Soils in the news

 

• Agriculture a culprit in global warming, says U.S. research  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-4812128/Agriculture-culprit-global-warming-says-U-S-research.html 

 

• The Secret to Growing More Food With Fewer Chemicals? Squirmy Soil http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/it-takes-a-village-of-microbes-to-make-healthy-soil-20170802 

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• Soil carbon scheme a world-first for South Australian and Victorian farmers http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-08-11/carbon-farmers-criticise-government/8796256 

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• Soil Warriors Researchers Hone in on Disease-Fighting Microbes in the Soil https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/crops/article/2017/08/16/researchers-hone-disease-fighting-3 

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• Jo Handelsman, Obama’s former scientific adviser, says the US is running out of soil https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/the-biggest-threat-to-the-world-it-s-not-disease-or-trump-1.3218540?mode=amp 

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• Night soil rises again in Australia http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-09/farmers-using-human-poo-to-improve-their-production/8887512?sf112663276=1 

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• The miracle of regeneration on an orange peel dump http://www.sciencealert.com/how-12-000-tonnes-of-dumped-orange-peel-produced-something-nobody-imagined

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Policy

 

• The People 4 Soil initiative has collected 200,000 signatures on their petition to the EU government to introduce legislation protecting European soils https://www.people4soil.eu/en 

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• The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s (UNCCD) have published the first edition of their Global Land Outlook (GLO) report https://global-land-outlook.squarespace.com , check out the ‘working papers’ section too for fascinating publications.

 

Outreach and publicity

 

• Soil education: There's an app for that https://www.treehugger.com/culture/starting-soil-app.html 

 

• An inspirational video by Greenpeace on regenerative agriculture in New Zealand http://greenpeace.org.nz/theregenerators/?utm_source=greenpeace&utm_medium=email+list&utm_campaign=agriculture&utm_content=the+regenerators+vid#firstPage

 

• A success story of regenerative agriculture in Australia http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/cs-prospect-pastoral-company 

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Books

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• Spoil to Soil: Mine Site Rehabilitation and Revegetation  Edited by N.S. Bolan, M.B. Kirkham and Y.S. Ok. Published 7 September 2017 by Routledge https://www.routledge.com/Spoil-to-Soil-Mine-Site-Rehabilitation-and-Revegetation/Bolan-Kirkham-Ok/p/book/9781498767613

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• Assessment, Restoration and Reclamation of Mining Influenced Soils  By Jaume Bech, Claudia Bini and Mariya Pashkevich (Editors). 1st edition published 12 September 2017 by Elsevier https://www.elsevier.com/books/assessment-restoration-and-reclamation-of-mining-influenced-soils/bech/978-0-12-809588-1

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Upcoming events

 

• 5th December 2017, UK '4 per mil' Debate (incorporating the 2017 Annual General Meeting) http://soils.org.uk/event/1174 

 

• 29th January – 1st February 2017, Terra Envision conference aims to focus on the scientific research towards finding solutions for the societal issues of our time. It promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and networking. http://terra-envision.weebly.com/ 

 

• 26-28th February 2018 BONARES conference in Berlin, Germany “Soil as a Sustainable Resource” http://www.bonares2018.de/index.html 

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