Changing Climate, Changing Soils Changes Human Health.

Soil has direct and indirect implications on human health. Soil is most often thought of as a source of nutrients for growing crops for a nutritious food supply.  However soil is also a reservoir for medicines used directly for human health and as a source of pathogens. Climate change is likely to alter the soil environment and the ecology of organisms in the soil.  The direction of change is not known. Loss of soil quality and the ecology of soil organisms could change nutrient availability for plant production.  The ecology of human pathogens in soil could be altered thus changing the incidence of human diseases.  Beneficial microbes as a reservoir of future antibiotics or other medicines may be lost if microbial diversity is reduced as a result of climate change and soil degradation.  We need to have a better understanding of the ecology of soil organisms and its genetic diversity to develop a values for soil