Soils and Ecosystem Response to Global Environmental Change.

Soils play a critical role in ecosystem response to changes in climate, atmospheric chemistry, land use and species, yet there is great concern that soil scientists will not play prominent roles in the science that is necessary to understand and address these changes.  There is especially great potential for soil scientists in the Soil and Ecosystem Processes group of the Soil Science Society of America to play a role in this science, but only if we think in a broader context and make linkages to other disciplines.  In this talk, I will give three examples of topics that are central to soil science that are critical to ecosystem response global environmental change (soil moisture, soil respiration, earthworms) that illustrate the challenges and opportunities that soil scientist face in a rapdily changing world.