Long-Term Soil Experiments: Keys to Managing Earth's Rapidly Changing Ecosystems

Abstract:

To meet economic and environmental demands for about 10 billion people by the mid-21st
century, humanity will be challenged to double food production from the Earth’s soil and
diminish adverse effects of soil management on the wider environment. To meet these challenges,
an array of scientifi c approaches is being used to increase understanding of long-term
soil trends and soil–environment interactions. One of these approaches, that of long-term
soil experiments (LTSEs), provides direct observations of soil change and functioning across
time scales of decades, data critical for biological, biogeochemical, and environmental assessments
of sustainability; for predictions of soil productivity and soil–environment interactions;
and for developing models at a wide range of scales. Although LTSEs take years to
mature, are vulnerable to loss, and have yet to be comprehensively inventoried or networked,
LTSEs address a number of contemporary issues and yield data of special signifi cance to soil
management. The objective of this study was to evaluate how LTSEs address three questions
that fundamentally challenge modern society: how soils can sustain a doubling of food
production in the coming decades, how soils interact with the global C cycle, and how soil
management can establish greater control over nutrient cycling. Results demonstrate how
LTSEs produce signifi cant data and perspectives for all three questions. Results also suggest
the need for a review of the state of our long-term soil-research base and the establishment of
an effi ciently run network of LTSEs aimed at soil-management sustainability and improving
management control over C and nutrient cycling.

Attach file: 

Richter_DD2007 LTSEs.pdf