provides numerous other functions and services (EC 2006a). Although a final consensus on the definition of soil quality has yet to be reached, one of its most prominent indicators is related to soil organic matter (SOM) content, otherwise described as the elixir of soil’s life, and having a paramount impact on all soil ecosystem services from biomass production to climate regulator (FAO and ITPS 2015).


Soils are both sources and sinks of organic carbon (OC) and the global terrestrial ecosystem at 1 metre depth contains more than 1 206 Pg C (Hiederer and Köchy, 2011), which is twice the amount present in the atmosphere, but such C stocks could be higher considering that often soils are much deeper than one meter. A more recent concept is the soil critical zone (Banwart 2011) that uses a holistic framework for integrated studies of water with soil, rock, air and biotic resources in the near-surface terrestrial environment. Furthermore, the term soil security (Amundson et al. 2015) is often associated with food security due to continuing high rates of soil degradation globally (Lal 2014) as well as in Europe (EC 2012c), and to stress the need for further action in soil conservation (Dumanski 2015). Soil losses by accelerated erosion are a warning that soon the world might be “running out of dirt” (Baveye et al. 2011). The planet loses 75 billion tonnes of topsoil annually (UNCCD 2012), while a UK government report in 2009 warned that 2 million tonnes of topsoil are being eroded by wind and rain every year in the UK alone. The economic damage of soil degradation in England is in the range of £150-250 million per year while the target is that by 2030 all England’s soils should be managed sustainably (DEFRA 2011). Unfortunately, attempts at binding international legal agreements have so far failed to protect soils from degradation (Montanarella 2015), and the progress made by the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) has been slow.


Supporting services include soil functions of crucial importance such as primary production for terrestrial vegetation, soil formation, rock weathering, nutrient cycling and release of nutrients. It is widely recognized that nutrient cycling is the largest contributor of goods and services, providing annually about 51 per cent of the total value (US$33 trillion) of all ecosystem services (FAO 2011b).


Soil provisioning services offer habitat for biodiversity, storing as much as 7 750 tonnes H2


O down to ha-1 and supply


food, biomaterials (timber, fiber and biofuel), raw materials, foundations for buildings, infrastructure and renewable energy production.


Soil regulating services filter and buffer water, regulate hydrological flows, stabilize gas circulation (CO2


O3 for UVB protection and SOx levels), regulate global /O2


climate (temperature and precipitation) and provide erosion control when the soil is covered with vegetation on slopes. Finally, soil provides cultural services in terms of recreation, cognitive value and preservation of archaeological heritage (Haygarth and Ritz 2009). All of the above services have a direct impact on people’s lives, as they involve a range of services that are essential and include health, nutrition, income, basic materials, good social relations and finally environmental security (Dominati et al. 2010).


There are millions of microorganisms in one teaspoon of soil but about only one per cent of them have been identified (Wall et al. 2012). This enormous gene pool has provided humanity with streptomycin (discovered by Nobel Prize winner Selman Abraham Waksman), saving millions of lives from tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. Soil is an enormous source for the production of biopharmaceutical products (Ling et al. 2015) as a train of soil bacterium called Mycobacterium vaccae has been proven to trigger serotonin which can cure a variety of ailments. The 2015 Nobel Prize winner in medicine, Satoshi Ōmura discovered a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites using soil biota.


120: UN International Year of Soil


2015 was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly as the International Year of Soil. Soil degradation continues to be a global environmental problem, with severe consequences for food security, especially in low income countries. The planet annually loses 75 billion tonnes of topsoil due to erosion; this is accompanied with additional negative consequences for biodiversity loss and accelerated climate change effects. The pan-European region is affected by these degradation


273 balance,


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242  |  Page 243  |  Page 244  |  Page 245  |  Page 246  |  Page 247  |  Page 248  |  Page 249  |  Page 250  |  Page 251  |  Page 252  |  Page 253  |  Page 254  |  Page 255  |  Page 256  |  Page 257  |  Page 258  |  Page 259  |  Page 260  |  Page 261  |  Page 262  |  Page 263  |  Page 264  |  Page 265  |  Page 266  |  Page 267  |  Page 268  |  Page 269  |  Page 270  |  Page 271  |  Page 272  |  Page 273  |  Page 274  |  Page 275  |  Page 276  |  Page 277  |  Page 278  |  Page 279  |  Page 280  |  Page 281  |  Page 282  |  Page 283  |  Page 284  |  Page 285  |  Page 286  |  Page 287  |  Page 288  |  Page 289  |  Page 290  |  Page 291  |  Page 292  |  Page 293  |  Page 294  |  Page 295  |  Page 296  |  Page 297  |  Page 298  |  Page 299  |  Page 300  |  Page 301  |  Page 302  |  Page 303  |  Page 304  |  Page 305  |  Page 306  |  Page 307  |  Page 308  |  Page 309  |  Page 310  |  Page 311  |  Page 312  |  Page 313  |  Page 314  |  Page 315  |  Page 316  |  Page 317  |  Page 318  |  Page 319  |  Page 320  |  Page 321  |  Page 322  |  Page 323  |  Page 324  |  Page 325  |  Page 326  |  Page 327  |  Page 328  |  Page 329  |  Page 330  |  Page 331  |  Page 332  |  Page 333  |  Page 334  |  Page 335  |  Page 336  |  Page 337  |  Page 338  |  Page 339  |  Page 340  |  Page 341  |  Page 342  |  Page 343  |  Page 344  |  Page 345  |  Page 346  |  Page 347  |  Page 348  |  Page 349  |  Page 350  |  Page 351  |  Page 352  |  Page 353  |  Page 354  |  Page 355  |  Page 356  |  Page 357  |  Page 358  |  Page 359  |  Page 360  |  Page 361  |  Page 362  |  Page 363  |  Page 364  |  Page 365  |  Page 366  |  Page 367  |  Page 368  |  Page 369  |  Page 370  |  Page 371  |  Page 372  |  Page 373  |  Page 374  |  Page 375  |  Page 376