Introduction and Summary
1. The soil
is a highly complex and dynamic system. Understanding its physical and chemical
properties is hard enough, but it also harbours a remarkable biodiversity. The
relationships between these abiotic and biotic components and the soil’s many
functions are still poorly understood. Nevertheless, since its beginnings in
the 19th century, soil science has helped to produce the vastly
improved yields of modern agriculture.
2. The soil’s
role in a host of other processes, such as carbon cycling and climate change,
pollution and ecosystem function mean that factors other than a desire to
improve agricultural productivity can influence research agendas. In the last
twenty-five years in most Western cultures, the key drivers behind soil science
have changed considerably as technical advances have begun to allow fundamental
soil processes to be understood. Food production continues to be the driving
force behind soil science research in developing countries. Soil science is an
interesting case study of how a particular area of science is adapting to
changing priorities and as technical developments allow new approaches to be
taken.
The Nineteenth Century
3. The early
stages of soil science from the beginning to the late 19th century
developed along two separate lines – the agricultural soil chemistry path and
the weathered rock, soil physics and agrogeology path[1]. There was little significant interaction
between them until the beginning of the 20th century. However, there were a number of important
developments over this period: Liebig’s mineral theory of plant nutrients of the
1840’s; the recognition of the importance of the soil profile (later pedon) by
Darwin and Dokuchaev; the identification of soil forming processes (e.g. the
role of earthworms in soil mixing, Darwin 1881); the variable nature of humus
(soil organic matter) and its role in soil forming processes (e.g. Mueller,
1840-1926);
4. Consequent
upon and following the establishment of the long-term field experiments by
Lawes and Gilbert in the 1840’s the research at Rothamsted focussed on the
relationship between soil conditions and fertility and its effect on crop
yield. Out of these experiments and
many others the first edition of Soil Conditions and Plant Growth by Sir E John
Russell was published in 1912. His son,
Walter Russell, published the eighth edition in 1973, and the 11th
multi-authored edition was published in 1988.
The several editions of this book have played no small part in shaping
the evolution of soil science in Britain and in many other countries of the world[2]
recognising that soil science and soil management is a multi-disciplined
activity embracing pedology (the study of soil origins and the soil profile),
soil chemistry, soil physics, soil biology, plant nutrition and other branches
of the life sciences.
5. The principle
drivers of research during the 19th century were curiosity and a
need to understand how to use soils and fertilise them to maintain and increase
crop yields. The design of the
long-term Rothamsted experiments reflects this; a comparison of the yield of
crops grown on soils receiving farm yard manure plus inorganic nitrogen and
soils receiving inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compound
fertilisers. The funding came from
trusts and farmers committed to improving their husbandry techniques and the
output from their farms. Farmers were
involved in the research.
The Twentieth Century
6. At the
beginning of the 20th century an understanding of the role of
microbes in the decomposition of plant residues in returning nutrients to the
soil (e.g. Waksman, 1888-1973) was developed, and towards the middle of the
century following Jenny’s model (1941) of soil nutrient dynamics, different
types of model were developed to understand the medium and long term dynamics
of soil organic matter. The early part
of the 20th century saw also the beginnings of soil survey in
Britain which led ultimately to the production of the 1:250,000 scale soil
survey of England and Wales in 1983 and of Scotland in 1989[3].
7. During the
first half of the 20th century a greater understanding of
soil chemistry and plant nutrition provided the impetus both to establish the
extent of variation in agricultural soils through soil survey and to gain
greater understanding of how to mange their nutrient status to support a
variety of crops. This was a period
during which the Agricultural Research Council was established (1934) and the
Departments of Agriculture began to take initiatives during and after World War
II to improve output from British agriculture.
Thus the funding for soil science during this period was predominantly
from the public purse. The rapid development of soil science and the need to
increase crop yields were primary drivers during this period.
From 1975
10. Then,
following first the Rothschild Report in 1971, which embodied the
customer-contractor principle but which was critical of the Agricultural
Research Council and second, the report of the Advisory Committee for Applied
Research and Development in 1975, which emphasised the relevance of public
research to manufacturing and industry, funding for agricultural research was
reduced. Consequently Agricultural
Departments and the ARC began a process of prioritisation and a reduction in
the numbers of scientists involved in agricultural research.
11. By the
early to mid 1980’s this process had gathered pace: furthermore the increased
output from agriculture and the oversupply of agricultural commodities within
Europe brought into question the continued public investment in agricultural
research. This was considered also in
relation to the need for public research investment to support other industries
and the need to improve their competitiveness.
The lack of private and commercial investment in agricultural research
also began to influence funding policy.
Moreover, in 1984 ARC became AFRC, the Agricultural and Food Research
Council, with responsibility to include research to address concerns about food
safety. Funding for agricultural
research continued to be redeployed.
12. The
negative impact on agricultural soil science research funding in the UK
over this period was considerable.
During the process of prioritisation several factors appear to have
influenced the reduction in resources allocated to soil science. The large increases in crop yields that had
been achieved were the result of many improvements in technology – crop
breeding, methods of disease and weed control, and not least the information
that related crop yield to fertiliser inputs for different soil types and
cultivation regimes. With regard to the
latter soil science was deemed to have delivered. In addition, government policy development indicated that it
wished to remove funding from ‘near market research’ such as this, which it did
eventually in 1990.
13. Priorities
were also determined by judgments about the potential for innovation within
different areas of science supporting agriculture and the growth of
agribusinesses. Developments in cell
and molecular biology, and plant genomics were judged to show real promise:
with its responsibility to fund science that had the potential to underpin
future commercial developments the AFRC moved greater resources into this area
of biotechnology. By the mid 80’s
agricultural soil science seems to have reached a plateau in terms of
development and lost some of its innovative zeal. Its period of empirical research appears to have been judged at
this time to have been too applied and too ‘near market: therefore, in the ‘cut
and thrust’ of prioritisation soil science ‘lost out’.
1990 onwards
14. A
combination of several changes in research policy direction and an unfavourable
view of the current innovative status of soil science at the time led to a
greatly reduced capacity for agricultural soil science in the UK by the
beginning of the 1990’s. While the
principle driver for soil science up to the mid 80’s had been to improve crop
yields, this was no longer a priority in terms of government research funding
for the rest of the century. In terms
of attracting funding agricultural soil science had lost its appeal.
15. However, a
core capability was sustained and soil biologists were already contributing to
approaches that moved the emphasis towards process based research and
mathematical modelling. Modelling
provided the impetus to gain a much clearer and quantitative understanding of
nutrient cycling, particularly nitrogen and carbon, and was used to understand
how pesticides moved through the soil. It also led to an interest in processes
at the scale of the rhizosphere.
Developments in microbiology have led to a greater ability to identify
the role of populations of microbes in nutrient cycling and how specific
organisms can be used to identify the resilience of soils to pollutant damage
as well as being used as toxic indicators in water. At the same time, the
increased functionality of soil information held in databases and within
Geographic Information Systems has led to their use in a wide range of
environmental and ecological applications, including the assessment of nitrate
leaching and nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils and the ecological
potential of soils for habitats of nature conservation value. Some of these
applications have had direct relevance to policy, for example in the water
industry. GIS and database technology has helped raise awareness of the
multi-functional role of soil in the environment through these and other
applications directly related to end-users other than primary producers in the
agricultural sector.
16. The early
90’s was a period of refocus for soil science in the UK. It became apparent that the issues of public
concern were the impact of acid rain and fertilisers on water quality and the
ecology of rivers, and the resilience of soils to the impact of waste, and
heavy metals as pollutants. There was a
decisive shift towards a broader interest in the role of soils in the
environment and ecosystem function. As
a corollary soil research for agriculture became concerned with the more
efficient use of fertilisers and effective use of farmyard manures, and a small
amount of research to support the development of organic farming. These were the issues that became the
primary drivers during much of the 90’s for the limited amount of soil research
that was funded.
17. At an
international level an important impetus developed in the late 90’s prior to
and following the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, which was signed in December 1997.
The Protocol contains legally binding commitments to limit or reduce
greenhouse gas emissions within the period 2008-2012 by at least 5% below 1990
levels. Europe’s commitment is to
achieve an 8% reduction and the UK has committed itself to a 12% cut with a
voluntary target of 20% below that of 1990.
However, associated changes in the net fluxes of two other greenhouse
gases identified in the Protocol – nitrous oxide and methane – will have to be
taken into account. The problem of how
to quantify the soil sources and sinks, to maximise carbon sequestration, and
to minimise soil emissions of methane and nitrous oxide presents a major
scientific challenge to the soil science community over the next few years,
(Smith, 1999)[5].
18. The
European Commission (EC) has concluded that the management of our soil resource
is central to environmental ecosystem sustainability; it requires to be
managed, to be conserved and protected. The EC intends to develop a soil
strategy as one of seven 'thematic strategies' foreseen under the EU's 6th
Environment Action Programme. As a first step in the development of an
encompassing EU policy to protect soils against erosion and pollution, it published
a communication Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in April
2002[6].
This communication proposed a soil monitoring directive and the establishment
of criteria of soil quality to harmonise data collection and monitoring in EU
Member States. Research in some
countries of Europe including the UK has been stimulated in anticipation of
having to implement these proposals.
19. Partly as
a result of the EU attention, Defra has recently published a Soil Action Plan
for England 2004-06[7] and a UK Soil
Research Audit was published in October 2003[8].
The audit said that there had been a decline in fundamental soil science
research, particularly in pedology, soil mineralogy and surface chemistry. This
decline had adversely affected training opportunities for the next generation
of soil scientists. However, future soil science needed to be multidisciplinary
and international in scope, and should aim to become a key component of wider
environmental science issues. It concluded that now was a time of great opportunity
and challenge for soil research because an increased knowledge base allowed
soil science to contribute to tackling some of the major environmental issues,
including climate change, pollution and sustainable land management.
Directions for the 21st
Century?
20. Many now
argue that biology lies at the heart of the scientific enterprise of the 21st
century but also see soil science as an integral part of that enterprise. Important practical issues require soil
biology knowledge. These include
understanding the role of soil processes in global warming and strategies to
ameliorate it; enhanced and safe recycling of waste from manures, urban and
industrial activity; pollutant destruction at waste disposal sites as well as
landscapes contaminated from natural processes; biological control of
rhizosphere pests; enhanced groundwater quality; discovery of new
biotechnological products, including pharmaceuticals, pesticides and enzymes
from the undiscovered microbial diversity of soil; and optimising recycling of
soil nutrients for sustainable agriculture and forestry, Tiedje, (2001)[9]. The basic premise behind an attempt to
understand the complex soil community is that further knowledge will pay off in
improved agriculture, environmental decision-making and management, and many of
the practical issues listed above. In this respect the drive to discover more
about the hidden microbial diversity in soil is coming from science disciplines
outside of agricultural and environmental science and who look primarily at waters
and soil as gene banks[10]
that may yield biotechnological and medical solutions as well as extend our
knowledge of life strategies and evolutionary processes.
Where do we go from here?
21. Questions:
·
So where are we now?
What are the current drivers for soil science in the UK? Are they
explicit? Who is setting them?
·
The drivers behind soil science have diversified hugely in
the recent years. Does the programme of soil science research reflect the
issues that are of concern to the stakeholders and the public in so far as
these can be defined? Are farmers’
concerns being addressed?
·
Was
the redirection of resources away from agricultural soil science in the 1980a
appropriate in the limited funding environment of the time, given the plateau
in its development and the promise of other areas? Has this had any negative
consequences? Is there still a benefit to be gained from traditional
agricultural soil science and is more needed?
·
Rather
than seeking to maximise production alone, can soil science help address the
big question of sustaining food production as well contributing to
environmental gain.
III. NEXT STEPS
·
Gather further
information on funding of soil science at the institutes listed above (what are
the programmes funded? who funds them and by how much?).
·
Get comments on the
revised paper from members of the soil science research community.
III.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Soil Science Advisory Committee, set up in 1995
by BBSRC and NERC, is made up of scientists from Universities, Research
Institutes, Industry and Funding Bodies. The Committee was set up to represent
the interests of the soil science community and as such is able to provide a
link between soils research and the main funding bodies. The Committee is
currently run jointly by BBSRC and NERC with the secretariat rotating between
the two Councils every two years. http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/tfwsci/ssac.shtml
The Institute of Professional Soil Scientists (IPSS),
founded in 1991, is a professional body that aims to promote and enhance the
status of soil science and allied disciplines. IPSS prescribes the professional
standards accepted by its members and strives continually to advance their
competence in scientific and technical matters. http://www.soilscientist.org/
The British Society of Soil Science currently has
1028 members from many countries and publishes two internationally peer
reviewed soil science journals, namely the 'European Journal of Soil Science'
(formerly 'The Journal of Soil Science') and 'Soil Use & Management'. The
society does not simply cater for soil scientists but also includes members
with strong interests in plant science, agronomy, environmental
management, hydrology, geology, geomorphology and microbial ecology. http://www.soils.org.uk/
Rothamsted Research (RRes)
The Agriculture and Environment Division
has internationally-acknowledged expertise in nutrient cycling in soils and
crop plants, soil protection and remediation and carbon dynamics:
The programme aims to understand the source, behaviour, fate
and impact of pollutants in soil and in the food chain in order to protect
against environmental damage, and also to devise methods for remedial
treatment. Specific objectives:
·
To protect yield, food, water quality and sustainable land
use by identifying the factors controlling the bioavailability and transport of
pollutants and pesticides in the environment.
·
The development of low-cost land and water remediation
technology.
·
To reduce pesticide losses into drainage waters,
particularly from cracking clay soils.
·
To provide advice on soil and water protection for policy
makers and land users.
·
Also – pesticide chemistry group of the Biological
Chemistry division.
Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER)
Soil,
Environmental and Ecological Sciences is one of three Research Departments
at IGER. It is based at two IGER research sites, North Wyke (Devon) and Plas
Gogerddan (near Aberystwyth, Wales).
Research activities relate to: Environmental and land
management research into nutrient cycling, plant microbe interactions,
agro-ecology, grazing behaviour and management of farm manures and nutrient
resources. Includes Soil
Science and Environmental Quality Team.
Silsoe Research Institute (SRI)
SRI specialises in bio-systems engineering for the
environmental, agricultural and land use communities. The Soil Physics Group
is one of the 7 groups in SRI. Research on the properties of soil is vital if
we are to understand how to sustain our soils in good condition and restore
those that have become damaged. In the Soil Physics Group we are looking at the
ways in which plants and soils interact, at how soils and stresses such as
rainfall interact and at how we can sense and measure the qualities that are
indicative of good, well-functioning soil. To this end we use and analyse
output from computer models describing the structure of soil, study how organic
matter confers desirable strength to soils and carry out field experimentation
on sites that range in function from vegetable production to salt marsh
barriers to inundation.
Warwick Horticultural Research International (HRI)
Warwick HRI research includes the area of Nutrient
and Pesticide Dynamics.
Horticultural production relies heavily on the input of
mineral nutrients and pesticides. Our primary aim is to study the behaviour of
nutrients and pesticides in soil and the uptake and utilisation of nutrients by
plants in order to deliver improved management practices for the benefit of
crop production and environmental protection.
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH)
Among NERC’s soil science activities is a directed research
programme on Soil
Biodiversity (now complete).
Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI)
The SCRI’s Environment theme includes the Plant-Soil
Interface programme. SCRI is at the forefront of multi-disciplinary
research involving soil microbiology, nutrient dynamics, mathematical
modelling, molecular ecology and soil biophysics to gain a better understanding
of how plants interact with the soil environment. Research Areas include: Soil
Ecology; Soil Biophysics; Nutrient Dynamics; Soil Sustainability; and
Resilience and Biodiversity
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (MLURI)
The MLURI Soil, Plant and
Microbial Interactions Research Programme includes a Soil Microbiology and
Chemistry theme. Research aims are to:
·
develop and apply molecular methods for assessing the
diversity (and functioning) of soil bacterial and fungal communities;
·
develop novel biochemical approaches such as community-level
physiological profiles of soil microbial communities, and use them to study the
impacts of land use, environmental change and pollution on soil microbial
community structure;
·
understand and manipulate rhizosphere and in plantae
microbial populations for remediating soil contamination;
·
determine linkages between individual plant species and soil
microbial diversity and activity;
·
measure the impact of changes in rhizodeposition of C on the
development of soil microbial communities; and
·
quantify the impact of defoliation and urine deposition on
soil solution chemistry, root composition, microbial community dynamics and the
availability of soil N and P.
With the University of Aberdeen, MLURI has also established
a soil health
initiative. This aims to exploit molecular biological techniques to better
understand soil as a vital living system, including research on soil
biodiversity, pathogenic microorganisms, the role of fungi in decomposition and
nutrient cycling and the use of GM or naturally bioluminescent fungi as
biosensors for pollutants.
[1] This
paragraph is based on the first chapter of ‘History of Soil Science’ : an
international perspective / Dan H.Yaalon, and S. Berkowicz (ed.). Reiskirchen :
Catena Verl., 1997: Advances in Geology 29
[2] Greenland
D.J. (1997) Inaugral Russel Memorial Lecture – Soil Conditions and Plant
Growth, Soil Use and Management 13, 169-177
[3] Hollis, J
M and Avery, B W (1997) History of Soil Survey and Development of the Soil
Series Concept in the UK, Advances in Geology 29
[4] Warkentin,
B P (1992) ‘Soil Science for Environmental Quality – How do we know what we
know? J. Environ. Qual. 21 163-166
[5] Smith, K A
(1999) After the Kyoto Protocol: Can soil scientists make a useful
contribution? Soil Use and Management 15 71-75.
[9] Tiedje, J
M., Cho, J C., Murray, A., Treves, D., Xia, B & Zhou (2001) Soil Teeming
with Life: New Frontiers for Soil Science in Sustainable Management of Soil
Organic Matter eds R M Rees, B C Ball, C D Campbell and C A Watson
