Why is Soil Important?

Ecosystems Services

Advances in watershed, natural resource, andenvironmental sciences have shown that soil is thefoundation of basic ecosystem function. Soil filtersour water, provides essential nutrients to ourforests and crops, and helps regulate the Earth'stemperature as well as many of the importantgreenhouse gases. As our awareness of the value ofnatural and managed ecosystems services grows,new biodiversity, carbon, and water markets areemerging, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange,and the nutrient trading programs under the newExecutive Order on the Protection and Restorationof the Chesapeake Bay. These markets place aneconomic value on management practices whichincrease those ecosystem services, producing goodsthat enhance human and environmental health.

Environmental & Human Health

Industrial, household, and non-point sourcepollution jeopardizes the health of the environmentand humans. Over the past several decades, soilscientists have identified new practices which limitthe mobility of contaminants and rehabilitatepolluted land.As a result, land managers now haveaccess to new, innovative soil managementstrategies that can mitigate soil, water, and airpollution, while also enhancing ecosystemperformance.

Food Security

We must develop new technologies and techniquesto produce more feed, fiber, food and fuel with

less— less land, less water, less energy,and fewer nutrient inputs.Achieving

this will require improved cropsand novel soil managementstrategies that can only beaccomplished through

investment in interdisciplinaryresearch and development.

Climate Change

Almost 35% of all greenhouse gases (GHG)released into the atmosphere due to anthropogenicactivities since 1850 are linked to land use changes.Crop, grazing, and forest lands, as well as wetlands,all have the potential to contribute to or, throughsound management strategies, mitigate GHGemissions through soil carbon sequestration, whilealso enhancing ecosystem services. Soil storescarbon dioxide (CO2) and other GHGs in soilorganic matter. Soil organic matter offers severaladded benefits: it filters and cleans water, enhanceswater retention and storage, mitigates the impactsof extreme weather events, improves soil structure,reduces soil erosion, provides microbial habitats,and serves as a source of long-term, slow-releasenutrients.

Science & EducationWorkforce Development

Funding for science education and workforcedevelopment must, in addition to other importantdisciplines, include soil science. Research, educationand training provided through the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture’s National Institute of Food andAgriculture (NIFA) and Land-Grant UniversitySystem (LGU), as well as the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA), National ScienceFoundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Energy(DOE), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), areessential to prepare the next generation ofinterdisciplinary soil scientists. Only with adequateinvestment in soil science will the nation have theworkforce (educators, researchers, and landmanagers) necessary to safeguard this irreplaceableresource and ensure ecosystem health as wellas the continued sustainableproduction of feed, fiber, foodand fuel.

Why is Soil Important?Soil provides ecosystem services critical for life: soil acts as a water filter and a growing medium;provides habitat for billions of organisms, contributing to biodiversity; and supplies most of theantibiotics used to fight diseases. Humans use soil as a holding facility for solid waste, filter forwastewater, and foundation for our cities and towns. Finally, soil is the basis of our nation’sagroecosystems which provide us with feed, fiber, food and fuel.

Soil Science Society of AmericaHelping to Create Solutions from the Ground Up

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SSSAMembers &ProfessionalsSSSA members areresearchers, educators,extension agents,consultants and industryadvisers. Our members,along with practicingCertified Professional SoilScientists (CPSSc) andCertified Professional SoilClassifiers (CPSC), adviseland managers in decisionsthat meet our nation’smodern agricultural, waterquality, land management,and environmentalchallenges. SSSA memberseducate, train, and mentorthe future workforce ofscientists, scienceeducators, and extensionagents to ensure theavailability of expertise insoil science forsustainableagriculturalproduction,naturalresourcemanagement,and environmentalprotection.

“To Forget how toTend the Soils is toForget Ourselves”

- Mahatma Gandhi

Soil Science Society of America

Sc ience Po l i c y Of f i ce

Karl M. GlasenerDirector of Science Policy

900 2nd St., NE

Suite 205

Washington, DC 20002

T: 202.408.5382

E: [email protected]

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Soil science integrates scientificprinciples from physics, biology, and chemistry to elucidate howsoils provide these essential services. Soil science provides an understanding ofhow soil properties relate to and can be managed for optimal agricultural production,forest, range, and wetland management, urban land use, waste disposal and management, andreclamation of drastically disturbed sites, such as mines. Soil science addresses nutrient management,sustainable agriculture, global biogeochemical cycles and climate change, ecosystem structure andfunction, or nuclear waste disposal and management, among many others.

Soil scientists research soil biogeochemical and physical processes, map soil characteristics, and teachaspiring scientists about soil processes. Soil scientists perform soil surveys, develop land use plans,conduct site evaluations for septic systems or storm water facilities, examine soil function and health,identify optimal food production methods, develop climate change mitigation strategies, and develop newapproaches for clean water and resource management at many spatial scales.

Important Facts about Soil� Wetlands deliver a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being, such as fish and

fiber, water supply, water purification, climate regulation, flood regulation, coastal protection, recreationalopportunities, and, increasingly, tourism. Despite these important benefits, the degradation and loss ofwetlands is more rapid than that of other ecosystems.

� Through natural processes, such as soil adsorption, chemicalfiltration and nutrient cycling, the Catskill Watershedprovides New York City with clean water at a cost of $1-1.5billion, much less than the $6-8 billion one-time cost ofconstructing a water filtration plant plus the $300 millionestimated annual operations and maintenance cost.

� U.S. agriculture produces about 500 million tons of cropresidue annually, most of which contributes to maintaining soilorganic matter. Plans to use crop residues for bioenergyproduction could deprive agroecosystems of important inputsfor future soil productivity, potentially upsetting existingagroecosystem balances.

� Arsenic from smelter emissions and pesticide residues bindsstrongly to soil and will likely remain near the surface forhundreds of years as a long-term source of exposure.

� Archaeologists have determined that the demise of many sophisticated civilizations, such as the Mayans ofCentral America and the Harappan of India, resulted directly from the mismanagement of their soils.

� Covering just 6% of Earth's land surface, wetlands (including marshes, peat bogs, swamps, river deltas,mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river floodplains) currently store up to 20% (850 billion tons) of terrestrial

carbon, a CO2 equivalent comparable to the carbon content of today's atmosphere.

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Soil Trivia� Did you know that there are more living

individual organisms in a tablespoon ofsoil than there are people on the earth?

� Did you know that almost all of theantibiotics we take to help us fightinfections were obtained from soilmicroorganisms?

� Did you know that agriculture is theonly essential industry on earth?

� Did you know that soil is a non-renewable natural resource?

� Did you know that the best china dishesare made from soil?

� Did you know that about 70% of theweight of a text book or glossy pagedmagazine is soil?

� Did you know that putting clay on yourface in the form of a "mud mask" isdone to cleanse the pores inthe skin?

Soils Sustain Life

PlantsPlants

WaterWater

ClimateClimate

EcosystemEcosystem

PollutantsPollutantsHuman HealthHuman Health

SoilSoil