Frontiers in Soil Science Research workshop report issued
This month, the National Academy of Sciences released “Frontiers in Soil Science Research”, a report resulting from a workshop held in 2005 to identify emerging areas for research in soil science by addressing the interaction of soil science subdisciplines, collaborative research with other disciplines, and the use of new technologies in research. The organizing committee for the workshop identified seven key questions that addressed research frontiers for the individual soil science disciplines, but also addressed the need for integration across soil science and with other disciplines. The seven questions addressed by the speakers and discussants were as follows: 1. How well do we understand the physical, chemical, and biological processes in soils that impact the atmosphere, vegetation, and the hydrogeosphere? 2. What are the chemical interactions at the molecular level that define the fate of ions, chemicals, and microbes as they are transported through soil systems? 3. What controls biodiversity belowground? How does this biodiversity affect the function of the soil system? 4. What is the effect of in situ soil architecture on soil physical, chemical, and biological processes? How does it vary from one soil system to another? What are the controlling factors? 5. How does landscape architecture (topography, vegetation, land use) affect the upscaling of soil processes to a regional level? 6. What are the new tools for making in situ and laboratory measurements of soil biological and physicochemical properties and processes? 7. From a systems analysis standpoint, what are the key indicators for detecting the resilience and stability of the soil system? and What are the critical factors that control its resilience and stability?
View report: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12666.html
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