Research

 

• An important voice of caution on biofertilizers from a researcher at the University of British Columbia , Miranda Hart, whose research has found little evidence of positive outcomes for soils. "I'm particularly concerned because there is no evidence that these inoculates are helping the environment," she adds. "What we're doing is releasing invasive species into the environment and we don't know the long-term effect of what's happening to the soil."

• New insights into the genetics of plant-microbe relations (and did you know that plants use 20% of their photosynthesis-derived energy to produce root metabolites to attract soil microbes???)

• The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has been awarded a large grant to research the mechanisms of soil carbon lock-up

• An interesting paper which shows the difficulties of working with the unruly and ‘uncultured’ soil bacteria. “The team showed that genomic traits related to laboratory measurements of maximum growth potential failed to predict the growth rates of bacteria in real soil.”

• We often think about the need to close the nutrient loop to help our soils – but nutrients in the wrong place can create problems. This interesting study by the students of the University of Colorado shows negative impacts of dog urine of city soils, suggesting we’ll need to think carefully about trade-offs between city green infrastructure and pet ownership

• Citizen science is being used by a World Bank project in Tanzania to sample soils in Dar es Salaam to create a comprehensive soil map, which will assist in flooding prevention planning

• A first attempt at creating a global map of tree-associating fungi has been made

• Are soil scans for precision farming worth the effort for farmers? This Dutch researcher has decided to investigate

• Researchers from the European Union Joint Research Centre have estimated the global financial losses due to soil erosion at $8 bn annually – the story is covered here by Forbes

• A fantastic collection of papers on soil information sharing and knowledge building for sustainable soil use and management in the Soil Use and Management journal is still open access and has many contributions by the Soil Care Network members!

 

 

Soils in the news

 

• Recent dramatic landslides in La Paz, Bolivia, have been recorded on these extraordinary videos; when the land decides to go there is not much we can do!

• A new system for soil sensing through remote nutrient analysis is being made available to farmers in the UK

 

 

 

Editorials, blogs and opinion

 

right to land

 

• This long editorial on how Ohlone people are rebuilding their relationship to land in the Bay Area, California, is worth a thorough read. It makes a clear connection between access to land, food production, and culture. I also found interesting their use of a voluntary tax which colonisers can choose to pay as a form of reparation for historical land injustice; this income is helping the Ohlone to pay off the mortgages on their communal land.

• Foreign land ownership is a growing issue not only in the Global South – increasing amounts of US soil are being bought up by foreign investors

 

farming

• This editorial links the recent Global Biodiversity Assessment with soil health and land management policies in the US: “The Global Biodiversity Assessment is clear: We need to reconsider what types of agricultural systems are supported by taxpayer dollars. (…) The billions of dollars of subsidies paid by the federal government should not support degenerative agricultural practices. For the sake of biodiversity protection and soil health, we should reward farmers for treating their farms as biodiverse, microbe-rich ecosystems. Policy should incentivize soil building practices like crop diversity, cover crops, crop rotations, integrated livestock management, and no-till.” Public money for public goods!

• This editorial on soil degradation issues in China explores the limitations of current policies, and suggests needed ways forward through e.g. food waste composting.

• Getting regenerative agriculture going requires policy support; in the US, crop insurance rules are making it harder for farmers to manage cover crops to maximise soil benefits

• In Ghana, some young farmers are working to shift the stigma of farming and make working the soil sexy

• This great review of the recent documentary Biggest Little Farm foregrounds soil care as the foundational element of farming. The film itself, which documents the setting up of a diversified ecological farm on degraded land in California, sounds fantastic.

 

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soil practices and soil investigation

• Capturing and retaining soil carbon is not just a technical issue, it is a societal one. What a refreshing editorial, from a professor of Agronomy and Agroecology, discussing different economical mechanisms for encouraging soil carbon farming

• A beautiful interview with the microbial ecologist Janet K Jansson gives insights into the potential impacts of climate change on soil microbes, as well as explaining many metagenomics techniques in a very accessible way.

• A very interesting short interview with the developer of new soil sensing protocols which try to account for soils’ dynamism. “The soil is a living, dynamic continuum, and our platform uses machine learning to help it be just that”.

• Where design meets soil sustainability: a new ingenious way to compost is described in this interesting editorial.

• Here is something to keep an eye on: A new partnership between Syngenta and The Nature Conservancy. Called Innovation for Nature, the collaboration aims to promote soil health, resource efficiency, and habitat protection in major agricultural regions worldwide. It brings together Syngenta’s research and development capabilities and TNC’s scientific and conservation expertise to scale up sustainable agricultural practices.

• Fantastic insights into ‘soil judging’ –  a soil description and assessment competition for undergraduate students which takes place in the US.

• This short editorial highlights current soil degradation challenges in Niger, and points to possible solutions for this, one of the poorest countries in the world today. “The future of Niger depends on the future of its soil.”

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Policy and social movements

• Previous newsletters commented on California State’s efforts to turn its agricultural land towards conservation agriculture – a commentary on the scale of these efforts to date is offered in this editorial; in a nutshell – good direction but not enough ambition

• The Global Symposium on Soil Erosion organised by UN FAO took place in Italy; it’s objective was to “establish a common platform to present and discuss the latest information on the status of interventions and innovations in the field of soil erosion and related land management”. We will be on the lookout for outcomes from this important event.

 

 

Projects

 

• The “Soil as a Sustainable Resource for the Bioeconomy -  BonaRes” project has started issuing a newsletter; the 1st edition is now available, and introduces the objectives and framework of the project. I found the post on collaboration between scientists and farmers particularly interesting

 

 

 

Events

 

• Global Landscapes’ Forum annual conference is coming up; it will be held in June in Germany, and its focus are indigenous rights to land – should be of interest to many in the Network