Feeding the world with soil science: embracing sustainability, complexity and uncertainty

TITTONELL, P.

SOIL

Copernicus

Año: 2016

Feeding a growing and wealthier population while providing other ecosystem services and meeting social and environmental goals poses serious challenges to soil scientists of the 21st Century. In particular, three dimensions inherent to agricultural systems shape the current paradigm under which science has to contribute knowledge and innovations: sustainability, complexity and uncertainty. The current model of agricultural production, which is also often the source of inspiration to propose solutions for future challenges, fails at internalizing these dimensions. Sustainability in particular is a soft concept, as opposed to a hard goal, and so its definition and its translation into concrete actions is always subjective. This paper examines what the concepts of sustainability, complexity and uncertainty mean and imply for soil science, and how they can help achieving five major priorities: (i) to produce food where it is most needed, (ii) to decouple agricultural production from its dependence on non-renewable resources, (iii) to recycle and make efficient use of available resources, (iv) to adapt to and reduce the risks associated with global change, and (v) to restore the capacity of degraded soils to provide food and other ecosystem services. New research challenges for soil scientists of the 21st Century are discussed.