Mapping and Classifying Anthropocene Changes in Our Soil Environment for Sustainable Management.

One historical focus in Pedology has been on making and interpreting soil maps for agronomic, engineering, silvicultural, and environmental purposes. Globally, initial basic soil property maps are being produced through remote sensing. In the United States, almost all private land already has a digital on-line soil map. Therefore US Pedologists are now closely investigating areas where profound changes have occurred, with concerns for environmental and food quality and human health and safety. Soil Taxonomy was developed to allocate natural soil materials into taxa, but during the last several hundred years humans have intentionally plowed, logged, drained, flooded, excavated, filled, and inadvertently eroded and polluted vast areas. With more people living on or near human transformed landforms and soils, detailed soil maps are being requested for sustainable management of resources. Since soils and ecosystems are now altered, conventional Pedology needed to evolve. New terms were added to describe artificial landforms, artifacts and manufactured materials in the soil and new tools/methods/guides needed to identify evidence of intentional human alteration and transportation of material. Soil Taxonomy modifications allowed new allocations at the series, family, and subgroup levels for easy establishment of new series, detailed mapping and interpretation unique to highly altered landscapes (anthroscapes). The first iteration of additions to Soil Taxonomy and the USDA system is being field-tested and reviewed. Recognizing, locating, researching, and classifying Anthropocene soils at several scales will help to identify the extent and impact of forcings that henceforth affect sustainable best use and management in varied environments. 6