Spokane Needs the New Soil Science

This morning, a draft white paper, Securing a Future for Soil Science, was distributed for comment to the division heads of the Soil Science Society of America. It is breathtakingly refreshing. And it encourages soil science geared to environmental protection and restoration, the aspect of soil science that Spokane needs the most.

The white paper covers many aspects of the state of soil science, much of it out of concern for the continuing erosion of soil science teaching capacity. A trend that has been going on for decades, soil science departments are being disassembled with the applied bits of soil science assimilated into the various disciplines that rely on them the most. Soil science research is increasingly performed by other than formally trained soil scientists. Old story, we’re dealing with it. Immediately new and exciting in this paper is that it makes an unprecedented appeal for soil science educators to embrace, and teach, the unique biological and ecological facets of soil science. And in doing so, concisely outlines the aspects of soil science that Spokane and the Inland Northwest will be increasingly looking to in order to restore water quality and revitalize our dynamic economies: transportation, agricultural, forestry, mining, industrial, and urban.

Redefining our disciplinary context and core activities
The evolving and broader context of soil science is derived from the array of functions and critical services provided by soils that both include and transcend food production:

• –Soil is the most biologically active compartment of the biosphere, hosting the largest pool of biodiversity of all biospheres;
• –Soil is the planet’s life support system, functioning as Earths’ life support body, a thin film of life covering much of the terrestrial surface;
• –Soil is a giant recycling system, providing most of our needs for food, feed, fiber, and increasingly energy production through biofuels.
• –Soil supports global biogeochemical cycles (C, N, P), representing the largest terrestrial stock of organic carbon;
• –Soil provides important ecosystem services (e.g., provisions of fresh and clean water) essential for human primary needs including drinking water and food provision, and carbon storage and flood regulation;
• –Soil is a functioning complex natural body with unique characteristics and emergent behaviors that cannot be deduced from a collection of its constituents or individual processes; soil is an integrator of the earth processes for which it is intrinsically linked.

All these things have been said before, often as not by folks outside traditional soil science circles. The nation’s premier body of soil science professionals has taken this to heart, and in fact, has been working quietly (and not so quietly) along these lines for many years. It is good to see that others within the profession are getting the message, and getting the message out.

retooled 12/15/2011