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Home , Soil, Soil science, Soil structure, Soil water (retention)

Science Society of America Helping to Create Solutions from the Ground Up

Why is Soil Important? Soil provides services critical for : soil acts as a filter and a growing medium; provides for billions of , contributing to ; and supplies most of the antibiotics used to fight diseases. Humans use soil as a holding facility for solid , filter for wastewater, and for our cities and towns. Finally, soil is the basis of our nation’s agroecosystems which provide us with feed, fiber, and fuel.

Ecosystems Services Change SSSA Advances in watershed, natural , and Almost 35% of all greenhouse (GHG) Members & environmental sciences have shown that soil is the released into the due to anthropogenic foundation of basic ecosystem function. Soil filters activities since 1850 are linked to use changes. Professionals our water, provides essential to our , , and , as as , SSSA members are and , and helps regulate the 's all have the potential to contribute to or, through temperature as well as many of the important sound management strategies, mitigate GHG researchers, educators, greenhouse gases. As our awareness of the value of emissions through soil sequestration, while extension agents, natural and managed services grows, also enhancing ecosystem services. Soil stores consultants and industry new biodiversity, carbon, and water markets are (CO2) and other GHGs in soil emerging, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange, . offers several advisers. Our members, and the trading programs under the new added benefits: it filters and cleans water, enhances along with practicing Executive Order on the Protection and Restoration water retention and storage, mitigates the impacts Certified Professional Soil of the Chesapeake Bay. These markets place an of extreme weather events, improves soil , Scientists (CPSSc) and economic value on management practices which reduces soil , provides microbial , increase those ecosystem services, producing goods and serves as a source of long-term, slow-release Certified Professional Soil that enhance human and environmental health. nutrients. Classifiers (CPSC), advise land managers in decisions Environmental & Human Health Science & Education Workforce Development that meet our nation’s Industrial, household, and non-point source modern agricultural, water jeopardizes the health of the environment Funding for science education and workforce quality, , and humans. Over the past several decades, soil development must, in addition to other important scientists have identified new practices which limit disciplines, include . Research, education and environmental the mobility of contaminants and rehabilitate and training provided through the U.S. Department challenges. SSSA members polluted land.As a result, land managers now have of ’s National Institute of Food and educate, train, and mentor access to new, innovative Agriculture (NIFA) and Land-Grant University the future workforce of strategies that can mitigate soil, water, and air System (LGU), as well as the U.S. Environmental pollution, while also enhancing ecosystem Protection Agency (EPA), National Science scientists, science performance. Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of educators, and extension (DOE), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), are agents to ensure the essential to prepare the next generation of availability of expertise in We must develop new technologies and techniques interdisciplinary soil scientists. Only with adequate to produce more feed, fiber, food and fuel with investment in soil science will the nation have the soil science for less— less land, less water, less energy, workforce (educators, researchers, and land sustainable and fewer nutrient inputs.Achieving managers) necessary to safeguard this irreplaceable agricultural this will require improved crops resource and ensure ecosystem health as well “To Forget how to as the continued sustainable production, and novel soil management Tend the is to strategies that can only be production of feed, fiber, food natural Forget Ourselves” accomplished through and fuel. resource - Mahatma Gandhi investment in interdisciplinary management, research and development. and environmental protection.

900 2 nd , NE | Suite 205 | Washington, DC 20002 | T: 202-408-5382 | www.soils.org Soils Sustain Life Soil science integrates scientific principles from physics, , and to elucidate how soils provide these essential services. Soil science provides an understanding of how soil properties relate to and can be managed for optimal agricultural production, forest, range, and management, urban , waste disposal and management, and reclamation of drastically disturbed sites, such as mines. Soil science addresses , , global biogeochemical cycles and , ecosystem structure and Soil Science function, or nuclear waste disposal and management, among many others. Society of America Soil scientists research soil biogeochemical and physical processes, map soil characteristics, and teach Science Policy Office aspiring scientists about soil processes. Soil scientists perform soil surveys, develop land use plans, conduct site evaluations for septic systems or water facilities, examine soil function and health, Karl M. Glasener identify optimal food production methods, develop climate change mitigation strategies, and develop new Director of Science Policy approaches for clean water and resource management at many spatial scales.

900 2nd St., NE Suite 205 Important Facts about Soil Washington, DC 20002 I Wetlands deliver a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being, such as fish and fiber, water supply, , climate regulation, regulation, coastal protection, recreational opportunities, and, increasingly, tourism. Despite these important benefits, the degradation and loss of T: 202.408.5382 wetlands is more rapid than that of other ecosystems. E: [email protected] I Through natural processes, such as soil , chemical filtration and nutrient cycling, the Catskill Watershed provides City with clean water at a cost of $1-1.5 Become a fan on billion, much less than the $6-8 billion one-time cost of constructing a water filtration plus the $300 million estimated annual operations and maintenance cost. I U.S. agriculture produces about 500 million tons of crop Soil Science Society of America residue annually, most of which contributes to maintaining soil organic matter. Plans to use crop residues for bioenergy production could deprive agroecosystems of important inputs and follow us on for future soil productivity, potentially upsetting existing agroecosystem balances. I from smelter emissions and residues binds ASA_CSSA_SSSA strongly to soil and will likely remain near the surface for hundreds of years as a long-term source of exposure. I Archaeologists have determined that the demise of many sophisticated civilizations, such as the Mayans of Central America and the Harappan of India, resulted directly from the mismanagement of their soils. I Covering just 6% of Earth's land surface, wetlands (including marshes, , swamps, river deltas, mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river floodplains) currently store up to 20% (850 billion tons) of terrestrial carbon, a CO2 comparable to the carbon content of today's atmosphere.

Water Soil Trivia

I I Climate Did you know that there are more living Did you know that the best dishes individual organisms in a tablespoon of are made from soil? soil than there are people on the earth? I Did you know that about 70% of the I Did you know that almost all of the weight of a text book or glossy paged antibiotics we take to help us fight magazine is soil? infections were obtained from soil I Did you know that putting on your Soil ? Soil Ecosystem face in the form of a " mask" is I Did you know that agriculture is the done to cleanse the pores in only essential industry on earth? the skin? I Did you know that soil is a non- Human Health renewable ? Please visit us at www.soils.org