A manifesto for soil
Professor John Quinton, Lancaster Environment Centre
2.45 pm
Soils are key to the survival of our species. They provide nutrients and water for food and fibre production, and can buffer us from the effects of extreme weather, for example by storing water and reducing the risk of flooding. Soils protect us from climate change by storing carbon. Indeed, more carbon is stored in soils that in any other terrestrial pool: some 2300 billion tonnes - that's 340 tonnes of carbon for every man, woman and child on the planet and four times more than is stored in all the vegetation on earth.
But soils are under threat. If they are to protect us from hunger, provide clean water and help to regulate the climate they will need our protection. We estimate that for every person on the planet an average of 5 tonnes of soil is eroded annually. Globally, that makes a staggering 35 thousand million tonnes of soil lost every year. Soil erosion also displaces 23-42 million tonnes of nitrogen and between 13 and 26 million tonnes of phosphorus per year. These are vital elements for crop production and the losses due to erosion are more than fertilizer inputs in many parts of the world. Not only does soil erosion impact on nutrient supply, it reduces the amount of water which can be stored in the root zone, so reducing the amount of water available for plants and increasing losses of water as surface runoff.
Therefore soils urgently need our protection. Fortunately we have developed a toolbox full of ideas for controlling erosion and other soil threats. Our challenge will be how we overcome the barriers that prevent farmers and other land users from adopting soil conservation practices, and maintaining them, so that our soils can be sustainably managed for future generations.
Biography
John Quinton is a Professor of Soil Science at Lancaster University, specialising in soil erosion and the transport of contaminants in overland flow, and holds degrees from Reading and Cranfield University. He was one of the developers of the European Soil Erosion model (EUROSEM), which is used for erosion prediction world-wide. He is an associate editor of the European Journal of Soil Science and the journal Solid Earth and is science secretary of the European Geophysical Union's Soil System Sciences Division.
John leads a research group focusing on soil erosion processes, the mobilisation and transport of contaminants and carbon through catchments, and the development of mitigation strategies for controlling diffuse pollution. He also provides advice to governments and industry on the sustainable management of soil.