Building Soil Resiliency for an Uncertain Future.

Healthy soil is critical to realizing multiple provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services. Throughout the world, however, soil degradation has resulted from agricultural activities that exploit the soil’s natural capital and exceed its resiliency and capacity to recover. Soil degradation is globally pervasive at a time when there are increasing expectations that soil will provide greater ecosystem services. This global situation presents a paradox. Why is unprecedented growth in knowledge and technical sophistication for managing soil coupled with increasing soil degradation? Furthermore, is there an expectation that this alarming relationship will decouple in the face of increasing future demands and uncertainties? I cannot answer these questions, but perhaps you will gain insights as strategies to build soil resilience in the face of uncertain future agricultural stresses are presented.