Soil and Global Issues
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Carbon Management and Sequestration Center SOIL AND GLOBAL ISSUES Rattan Lal Carbon Management and Sequestration Center The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center SOIL: THE ESSENCE OF LIFE “Hello there folks. Do you know who or what I am? I am the geomembrane of the Earth. I am your protective filter, your buffer, your mediator of energy, water, and biogeochemical compounds. I am your sustainer of productive life, your ultimate sources of elements, and the habitat for most biota. I am the foundation that supports you, the cradle of your myths, and the dust from which you will return. I am a soil”. Richard Arnold (2005) Senior Soil Scientist 2 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center THE LIVING SOIL Soil is an organic- carbon mediated realm in which solid, liquid, gas and biology all interact from a scale of nanometer to landscape. The weight of live organisms in arable land is 5 t/ha 3 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center THE DIRT "Dirt has no currency in western society, and has little impact on politicians. It comes under the journalist "MEGO" category… My Eyes Glaze Over. Bar a few impressive dust storms, we care little of our soil. We do not relate what we eat in our home, buy in out supermarkets, or drink from our Starbucks to the soil. And yet, without soil, we become thirsty, hungry, and we die. Without soil, we become Mars, with no water, no atmosphere, and only relics of life, with at best distant stargazers trying to figure our the life that could have been." Young and Crawford (2015) 4 SCALING ISSUES IN SOC STOCK ACarbonSSESSMENT Management and Sequestration Center 1 × 109 World 1 × 108 Continent 1 × 106 River Basin 4 1 × 10 Watershed 1 × 103 Landscape 3677 km 2 1 × 10 Soil Scape 100 12,742 km Soil Profile Size (m) -9 5000 × 10 Clod -9 500 × 10 Macroaggregate 250 × 10-9 Microaggregate 2 × 10-10 Clay 1 × 10-10 Molecules 0 5 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center Population Energy use Water use Deforestation CO2 Emissions Land DegradationThe answer lies in soils. Desertification Human Impact Human Soil Matters 8000 1750 1850 1950 2000 BC Time 6 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF SOILS 2015 The 68th UN General Assembly (A/RES/68/232) declared 2015 the “International Year of Soils” The Objectives of IYS are: • To create full awareness of civil society and decision makers about the fundamental roles of soils for human’s life • To advance full recognition of the prominent contributions of soils to food security, climate change, adaptation and mitigation, essential ecosystem services, poverty alleviation and sustainable development. • To promote effective policies and actions for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources. 7 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center INTERNATIONAL DECADE OF SOIL (2015-2024) 1. Relationships between human activities and soils and their effects on other components of the environment. 1. Soil security tied to food and water security and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 1. Soil to be considered a key component to mitigate climate change. 1. The urbanization and sealing of soils to be limited to avoid losses of best agricultural soils. 1. Soil awareness should be enhanced throughout the global community at all levels emphasizing. 8 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center HUBERT CURVE • Competing Uses • Nature conservancy Is there a peak soil? Soil Use Soil Are there endangered soils? Year • Land resources already allocated to agriculture production are adequate through sustainable intensification, soil restoration, and carbon sequestration. Lal (2015) 9 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center GLOBAL ENERGY USE (EIA, 2015) Year EJ/yr 1980 299 1990 366 2000 +8 EJ/yr 420 2005 480 Source % 2010 536 Fossil Fuel = 80.0 2012 553 Bioenergy = 11.3 (wood) Nuclear = 5.5 Hydro = 2.2 Others = 0.4 10 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center GLOBAL WATER USE Year IndustrialAgriculturalMunicipalTotal Year Total Agricultural Industrial Municipal 1900 5792244513 1900 579 513 22 44 1950 1382204871080 1950 1382 1080 87 204 2000 39733847762605 2000 3973 2605 384 776 2010 44314729082817 2010 4431 2817 472 908 2025 523560711703189 2025 5235 3189 607 1170 Factor 9.0427.5926.596.21 Factor 9.04 6.21 27.59 26.59 11 Webworld.unesco.org Year Total Agricultural Industrial Municipal Reservoirs Agriculture as % of Total 1900 579 513 22 44 0.3 88.6 1940 1088 895 59 127 7.0 82.3 1950 1382 1080 87 204 11.1 78.1 1960 1968 1481 118 339 30.2 75.3 1970 2526 1743 160 547 76.1 69.0 1980 3175 2112 219 713 131 66.5 1990 3633 2425 305 735 167 66.7 1995 3788 2504 34 752 188 66.1 2000 3973 2605 384 776 208 65.6 2010 4431 2817 472 908 235 63.6 2025 5235 3189 607 1170 269 60.9 Factor 9.04 6.21 27.59 26.59 868.7 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center THE PHOSPHORUS SYNDROME • The Haber-Bosch process has increased the availability of N. • However, availability of P is limited because of its finite reserves. • This change in stoichiometry of C and N relative to P since the second half of the 20th Century is a unique phenomenon in Earth's history, and is one of the effects of Anthropocene. • The severe problem of algal bloom is related to an excessive transport of P from agro-ecosystems to aquatic ecosystems 12 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center HIDDEN HUNGER • Globally, ~2 billion people suffer from a chronic deficiency of essential micronutrients, protein and vitamins ,and 795 million are hungry • Young children and women of reproductive age living in developing countries are the most vulnerable. • Most widespread micro-nutrient deficiencies are those of vitamin A, B- 12, and other B vitamins • These deficiencies account ~7% of the global disease burden annually. • Population in countries prone to hidden hunger are in sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. 13 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center THE RESOURCES USED FOR AGRICULTURE • 38% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface is used for agriculture, • 75% of agricultural land (3.73 Bha) is allocated to raising animals, • 70% of the global freshwater withdrawals are used for irrigation, • 30-35% of global greenhouse gas emissions are contributed by agriculture, And yet 1 in 7 persons is food-insecure and 2-3 in 7 are malnourished. 14 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center MEETING FOOD DEMAND BY 2050 The world produces enough food to feed 10 billion people . Thus, food and nutritional security must be achieved by: • Reducing waste (30-50%), • Increasing access to food by addressing poverty, inequality, wars and political instability, • Improving distribution, • Increasing use of plant-based diet, • Accepting personal responsibility of not taking things for granted, and • Increasing agronomic productivity from existing land, restoring degraded lands ,and converting some agricultural land for nature conservancy without any conversion of natural land to agroecosystems. 15 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center SOIL MATTERS • Solution to global issues lies in soils • U.N. Sustainable Development Goals can only be met through soil management and restoration 16 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center SOIL-DERIVED ELEMENTS ESSENTIAL TO PLANT GROWTH I. From Soil Fourteen Elements: N, Ca, Mg, K,P, S, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, B, Cl, Mo, Ni Additional Elements for Some Plants: Co, Br, V, Si, and Na Havlin et al. (2005) II. From Air and Water: H, O, C 17 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center DIGGING UP ANTIBIOTICS FROM SOIL • Most antibiotic are produced by screening soil microorganisms. • Penicillin came from Penicilliium, Streptomycin from Streptomyces, and Vanomycin from Amycolatopsis orientalis. • Uncultured bacteria make up ~99% or all species in external environments, and are an untapped sources of antibiotics (Lewis, 2015. Nature) • An antibiotic discovered from soil in Maine can kill Mycibaterium tuberculosis (Ling et al., 2015. Nature) • A new antibiotic "Teixbactin" from soil can sill the bacteria that cause pneumonia, staph, and blood infections (Fink, 2015. Nature) • Almost 50% of Actinomycetes isolated from soil are capable of synthesizing antibiotics. There are a lost of unanticipated surprises still lurking in soil 18 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center IMPACT OF MICROBIAL BIOMASS INPUTS TO SOC ACCUMULATION • Microbial physiology can accumulate SOC even with lower input of biomass-C • Transformation of biomass-C into microbial biomass may be an effective strategy for building SOC in agricultural soils. Kallenbach et al. (2015) 19 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center PHYTOBIOME • The entire microbial community in, on and adjacent to plants and comprising of rhizosphere, phyllosphere, and endophytic compartments. • It also includes plant pathogens, beneficial microbes, plant-associated human pathogens etc. • The Phytobiome initiative is aimed at understanding of how the associated microbial community influences or is influenced by the plant, and how that information can be used to improve NPP. 20 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RESPONSE • Humans have not had to deal with such a drastic climate change since 10-12 millennia ago • Now the humans, with population of 73 billion and projected to be 11 billion, have to deal with it and increasingly so in the future • There are high expectations on COP-21 in Paris in Dec. 2015 Illustration by Lincoln Agnew, NYT 4/21/2013 21 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center GLOBAL POTENTIAL OF SOC SEQUESTRATION (Pg C/YR) Cropland: 0.4-1.2 Grazing land: 0.3-0.5 Salt-affected 0.3-0.7 soils: Desertified soils: 0.2-0.7 Total: 1.2-3.1 Lal (2010) 22 Carbon Management and Sequestration Center ECONOMICS OF RESIDUE REMOVAL FOR BIOFUEL “Soil biota is the bioengine of the Earth” There is no such thing as a free biofuel from crop residues.