The Department for Sustainable Soils and Grassland Systems at Rothamsted Research has announced the launch of a new Global Scientific Assessment on Soil Biodiversity as a result of an international meeting organized by the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative in London last month.

At the meeting, scientists and policy makers agreed that advances in understanding of the living organisms in soil and what they do for farmers and society as a whole can be used to help manage and sustain soils for the future. The announcement follows increased interest from policy makers on the beneficial effects of healthy soil and the potential dangers to food security and healthy ecosystems posed by soil degradation.

Last week, European commissioners announced the release of guidelines which they hope will go towards reducing soil sealing and overall soil degradation in Europe and a new Global Soil Partnership will be formed in Rome to conserve soil resources following calls from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.  

Soils are living, dynamic biomes in their own right. Healthy soil forms a habitat for millions of microbial and animal species and as they take hundreds or even thousands of years to build up, soil scientists view soils as a non-renewable resource. Furthermore, intensive use and mis-use of soils, or their complete sealing due to urbanization, may impact on humans’ ability to produce enough food for a growing population as climate change begins to take effect.

Soils provide contributions to clean air, pure water, nutrients for crops, sequestration of carbon, and regulation of pests and disease. For these reasons, the newly launched Global Soil Biodiversity Assessment (GSBA) will gather data and examples of how soil biodiversity and its services can be measured and attempt to form an action plan to present at the Rio+20 summit in June, where world leaders are expected to discuss ways to tackle poverty and climate change.

The GSBI, which is behind the new assessment, was set up in September 2011 during the conference on Soil Science in a Changing World held in the Netherlands. It is supported by several research institutions and the European Commission. GSBI representatives have said the initiative’s aims for the future will focus on:

• Informing policy on soil health and biodiversity
• Guiding standardisation of methods and data synthesis to facilitate accurate study and sharing of information
• Identifying key scientific challenges for soil biodiversity and its functioning
• Providing management options to deliver optimal ecosystem services, primarily to influence policy makers at the Rio +20 summit.

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