​​

Happy 10th World Soil Day!

World Soil Day (WSD), celebrated annually on December 5, highlights the importance of healthy soil and sustainable soil management. Proposed by the International Union of Soil Sciences in 2002, it gained support from the FAO and the Kingdom of Thailand under the Global Soil Partnership. Endorsed by the FAO, the UN General Assembly officially designated December 5, 2014, as the first World Soil Day. 10 years later, the theme of 2024 is Caring for Soils: Measure, Monitor, Manage, with various events, podcasts, and learning and sharing opportunities. What are you doing this World Soil Day?

​​

​

Academic Papers & Books​​

A comprehensive study of the achieved emission reductions of carbon crediting projects, published in Nature Communications, concludes that only 16% of carbon credits on the market have actually led to actual carbon sequestration, meaning that the vast majority of credits issued is essentially ‘empty’ - sequestration has not been achieved.  What do these findings imply for current work on soil carbon sequestration projects? Let’s remember that already in a 2016, a study by the European Commission found that 85% of the offset projects used by the EU under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), one of the largest carbon offset markets, failed to reduce emissions at all.

 

A new paper looks at how soil ecologists can communicate about soil biodiversity more effectively to shape discourse and policy priorities. It emphasises the importance of knowing your audience, clarifying key messages, using persuasive frames, and including diverse perspectives.

 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to severe soil contamination especially in occupied territories, a recent paper reveals. Military operations and dumping of chemical waste have increased the amount of heavy metals and other hazardous substances, seriously endangering public and environmental health.

 

What if we thought of soils as heritage? A new article argues that this could draw attention to how soils have been shaped over time by humans and nonhumans, and how they matter to intergenerational justice and care.

 

Check out Rooted, a new publication specifically on agroecological transitions, with a wealth of useful and robustly research articles - last issue focused on policies for agroecology.​

​

​

Oldies but Goodies

Phillip Craul's 1982 "Urban Forest Soils", a remarkable collection of essays on how trees cope and survive in city soils!

​​

​​

Soil Art

Between Jan-April a wonderful exhibition SOIL: The world at our feet will be open in London at the Somerset House. Featuring over 50 works in a diverse range of media, this multifaceted exhibition takes visitors across three thematic sections, Life Below Ground, Life Above Ground and Hope. SOIL is a story of humanity, providing a record of the transformational marks that geopolitical, economic and social histories leave on the skin of our planet.

 

What can designers do with soil? A new  book "Soil Trust Farm Studio (泥玩農場工作室)" portrays a design undertaking that engaged a hotel, farm, retailer and households to regenerate soils from upcycled foodwaste. The book published as Open Educational Resource (ORC) contains methods, recipes, reflections and testimonials to inspire multiplications elsewhere.

​

A Scottish composer David Cooper used the soil as a co-composer of his widely popular musical piece. The only copy of his album ‘Carve the Runes Then be Content With Silence’, recorded on tape, was buried and then unearthed after spending years in the soil - and became a Nr 1 classical album.

​

A french soil scientist Geoffroy Serré composed a 10 minutes long monotonal piece playing on the homonimy between the musical key sol (G in french) and the sol (soil in french). It represent the successive phases of the pedogenesis. 

​

​​The fourth webinar of the Soil Science and Participatory Research (SRP Sols) project network ​​”How can games facilitate participatory soil research?” is available online. 

​

​

Soils in the news

The Flow Country in Scotland became a World Heritage Site this year - the first time a peatland has become protected in this way, and to our knowledge the first time that the soil was the basis of this designation.

A new study report titled “Soil Quality: towards an indicator system for public policy” published by INRAE explores the provide in depth interdisciplinary exploration of the issue of soil quality and soil health assessment and indicators in the french context.

​​​​​​

​​

Announcements

​Position announcement for Full Professorship for ‘Soil Science’ at Humboldt University Berlin

The HU Berlin is looking for an excellent and ambitious researcher who will comprehensively represent the field of Soil Science in research and academic teaching at the Thaer Institute with a particular focus on the development of sustainable agricultural systems for securing food production in a socio-ecological context. Deadline January 6.

Webinars hosted by American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, include a free webinar on “Oxisols and Mollisols - Important Agricultural Soils in Brazil and the USA: Implications for Management on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Central as well as a webinar on “Policy Update: What the Election Results Mean for Scientists” on Thursday, December 12, 2024 at 11:00 AM -12:00 PM Central. Sign up here

​