FROM THE DESK OF RATTAN LAL
Viewpoint 3.2017
1st March 2017
Sub: Soils and Global Issues
Dear Soil Scientists,
Soil scientists have, are and must continue serving agriculture. Nonetheless, other global issues of the 21st century must not be ignored. It is essential that soil scientists seek interdisciplinary cooperation with:
1. Health scientists and human nutritionists to mitigate hidden hunger and malnutrition affecting ~2 billion people,
2. Pharmaceutical industry to discover antibiotics and other medicinal compounds produced by soil biota and biochemical processes,
3. Climatologists to predict paleoclimate from soil properties, project positive/negative feedback(s) from temperature-induced mineralization of soil organic matter, and develop improved global circulation models involving critical pedospheric processes,
4. Sedimentologists and fluvial geomorphologists to determine the pathways and fate of carbon transported and redistributed over the landscape by erosional processes (water, wind, gravity, and tillage),
5. Astronomers to study soils of extraterrestrial bodies and soil processes under hypogravity conditions,
6. Biogeochemists and hydrologists to study coupled cycling of C with H2O, N, P, S in the vadose zone,
7. Political scientists to translate the soil science data into practical action plans, and agenda of global relevance,
8. Social scientists to enhance awareness of the importance of soil science to addressing global issues,
9. Economists to assess the societal (rather than monetary) value of ecosystem services provisioned by soils of natural and managed ecosystems, and
10. Psychologists to raise the stature of soil science for attracting the best and brightest to the soil science profession.
Soil scientists can bring about the paradigm shift, and sky is no longer the limit!
Sincerely,
Rattan Lal
President, International Union of Soil Sciences
