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Academic Papers

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Net-zero policies are betting on forests and soils to achieve their objectives, and there is a lack of consistency in the quantification and reporting of the outcomes, this original review of national long term national climate strategies finds

 

Listening to the soil (ecoacoustics) can provide an efficient method for assessing biodiversity restoration in forests

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When focusing just on soils, we risk losing the landscape with all its complex social and ecological relations. In this rich paper Galina Kallio and Will LaFleur discuss what a more systemic, localised, and sensuous approach to studying soils as part of the regenerative agriculture knowledge system may look like

 

Can claiming objectivity weaken rather than strengthen the effectiveness of science in policy? This article on subsidence science in Indonesia argues that it can, as it corners the scientists in a search for ever more facts which can be and are ignored by policy makers

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Soil security is a useful concept for actionable research for soil health, Prof Bouma argues in a recent paper; he also explores the adoption of the soil security concept in the context of Living Labs

 

There is little work on the meanings of soil and land, especially in non-Western contexts. We therefore welcome the recent book Writing on the Soil by Ng’ang’a Wahu-Mũchiri. The book engages with literature from a number of African countries to argue that representations of land and landscape perform significant metaphorical labor in African literature

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Soil & Policy

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​The full text of the Soil Monitoring Law proposal, adopted by the European Comission on 5th July, can now be read here. You can comment on it until 25th September here 

 

The European Mission Soil week will take place in Madrid 21-23 November. This major conference will bring together Mission stakeholders and projects, give visibility to the importance of soil protection, restoration and monitoring, and discuss actions and solutions that are needed to progress towards more sustainable land management

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Soil Art, Entertainment, and Outreach

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Soil Chromatography Workshop at Intrepid Studios, Hove, on August 28th 2023. Learn how to photographically image organic matter held within samples of soil, crossing the boundary between art and science

 

From August until November in Tarawarra, Australia, you can view the Soils Project exhibition which explores the complex and diverse relationships between environmental change and colonisation through a focus on soils

 

What may the arts contribute to efforts of soil protection and valuing? The artist Kate Foster reflects following her participation in the IUSS Congress in Glasgow last summer

 

'Soil Celebration' - a participatory art workshop making pigments from soils - at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh on 19th August 2023

 

Exhibition 'Soil Conversations' at Galerie im Körnerpark in Berlin until 30th August 2023. Looking at the granularity of soil as material, our relationship to the ground on which we build life on and soil as a bearer of memory, identity and speculative futures

 

Prof. Eleonora Bonifacio will deliver a lecture about 'Linking mechanisms to soil functions to achieve sustainable development goals' in the framework of the ISC Distinguished Lecture Series "Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development" (online, 19th September). Registration is free

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The International Orkney Science Festival will feature a talk by Prof Karen Johnson: 'Rebuilding the soil: an engineer’s perspective', on 7th of September

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Soil Initiatives

Indigenous peoples have long been stewards of the soil; now projects such as the Land of Dreams are reviving this deep connection

 

The International Union of Soil Sciences and the International Association for Promoting Geoethics have signed an agreement to work together on ethical, social and cultural implications of geoscience knowledge, research, practice, education and communication

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