How The Fundamental Soil Science Group Can Better Address The Food Production/Environmental Challenge.

The core soil properties are texture, mineralogy, soil organic matter and pH. Pedologists can help by using Soil Taxonomy in conjunction with technical classification systems that address specific production and environmental constraints and displaying them as digital soil maps. Soil biologists should go beyond emphasizing that below-ground biodiversity is central to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems because of the critical functions the soil biota perform, to implement rigorous field research geared at quantifying tradeoffs and synergies between nutrients supplied by decomposers vs. fertilizers, and soil structure improved by macrofauna vs. tillage. Soil chemists should pay more attention to anion exchange capacity in variable charge subsoils, as a safety net against leaching and nitrate contamination of groundwater. Also they should develop transfer functions between the different methods used in determining pH, CEC, acid saturation, etc. Mineralogists should simplify the main mineralogical families into five major groups. Soil physicists should establish quantitative parameters for identifying structurally inert soils subject to surface sealing and hard-setting. Also, they should come to grips with the errors in carbon sequestration estimates due to changes in soil surface depth and bulk density.