Soils are a critical part of our life support system, providing many functions across the food-water-energy-environment nexus: they provide 99.7% of our food; they are the largest store of organic carbon in the earth system and as such are important to climate change; and they regulate water quality and quantity, mitigating the risk of floods, droughts and pollution.
This research theme considers the management of land and our soil, and how it is vital to the sustainability of societies, economies and our environment. It draws together the rich soil and water science expertise across Lancaster Environment Centre and the world-class business understanding of LUMS to work towards a more sustainable future.
Activity includes:
- Rurban Revolution - a new £800,000 project, funded by the Global Food Security Programme with support from BBSRC, ESRC, NERC and The Scottish Government, considering how we could transform UK food production by radically upscaling fruit and veg growing in our towns and cities, and whether urban agriculture would make us, and our environment, healthier. This project crosses several Pentland Centre research priorities, including Supply Chain Sustainability and Food, water, energy and business.
- Outreach via Lancaster University's Campus In the City - #SoilsInTheCity
- Workshops around soil, carbon and business at WBCSD business events in Chennai and Montreux; publication of a high profile comment in Nature on the business case for soil management.
- The Soil Value Project - part of a prestigious five-year EPSRC/LWEC Early Career Research Fellowship awarded to Dr Jess Davies
Key researchers: Dr Jessica Davies, Dr Victoria Janes-Bassett, Dr Dmitry Yumashev, Roisin O’Riordan