The role of soil in defining planetary boundaries and the safe operating space for humanity.

Autor: Kopittke PM; The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia. Electronic address: p.kopittke@uq.edu.au., Menzies NW; The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia., Dalal RC; The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia., McKenna BA; The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia., Husted S; University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences and Copenhagen Plant Science Centre, 1871 Frederiksberg, Denmark., Wang P; Nanjing Agricultural University, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing 210095, China., Lombi E; University of South Australia, Future Industries Institute, Mawson Lakes, South Australia 5095, Australia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environment international [Environ Int] 2021 Jan; Vol. 146, pp. 106245. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Nov 05.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.106245
Abstrakt: We use soils to provide 98.8% of our food, but we must ensure that the pressure we place on soils to provide this food in the short-term does not inadvertently push the Earth into a less hospitable state in the long-term. Using the planetary boundaries framework, we show that soils are a master variable for regulating critical Earth-system processes. Indeed, of the seven Earth-systems that have been quantified, soils play a critical and substantial role in changing the Earth-systems in at least two, either directly or indirectly, as well as smaller contributions for a further three. For the biogeochemical flows Earth-system process, soils contribute 66% of the total anthropogenic change for nitrogen and 38% for phosphorus, whilst for the land-system change Earth-system process, soils indirectly contribute 80% of global anthropogenic change. Furthermore, perturbations of soils contribute directly to 21% of climate change, 25% to ocean acidification, and 25% to stratospheric ozone depletion. We argue that urgent interventions are required to greatly improve soil management, especially for those Earth-system processes where the planetary boundary has already been exceeded and where soils make an important contribution, with this being for biogeochemical flows (both nitrogen and phosphorus), for climate change, and for land-system change. Of particular importance, it is noted that the highly inefficient use of N fertilizers results in release of excess N into the broader environment, contributes to climate change, and results in release of ozone-depleting substances. Furthermore, the use of soils for agricultural production results not only in land-system change, but also in the loss (mineralization) of organic matter with a concomitant release of CO 2 contributing to both climate change and ocean acidification. Thus, there is a need to markedly improve the efficiency of fertilizer applications and to intensify usage of our most fertile soils in order to allow the restoration of degraded soils and limit further areal expansion of agriculture. Understanding, and acting upon, the role of soils is critical in ensuring that planetary boundaries are not transgressed, with no other single variable playing such a strategic role across all of the planetary boundaries.
(Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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