Fundamental Changes in Soil Taxonomy: Why Now Is the Time.

The first working Soil Taxonomy document was distributed in 1960 as the 7th Approximation with nomenclature appearing in soil surveys by 1965.  Over the last 50 years, the size and complexity of Soil Taxonomy has increased.  Is bigger always better? Does our approach of tackling one taxonomic issue at a time maintain Soil Taxonomy as an efficient and functional classification system? Our goal is to have a taxonomic system that is "A basic system for making (and interpreting) soil surveys". Is it a "basic system" any longer?  The answer to all these questions is clearly no. So, what do we do? The ultimate purpose of soil taxonomy is to provide a means to assess the potential of the soil resource to serve any number of purposes. In addition, the taxonomic system should be focused on relevant interpretations, based on current science, and formatted to be user friendly so that there can be broad application across disciplines. Now is the time to formulate and implement fundamental changes to Soil Taxonomy so that we have a working document that is basic, functional, and user friendly.