The Frontiers in Soil Science Research: An African Perspective

Gobezie, Tegbaru B.; Aynekulu, Ermias; Biswas, Asim

doi:10.1007/978-981-16-0917-6_31

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…This contrast likely reflects differences in stable research funding given the importance of continuous resources to curate and maintain soil archives, in addition to the support needed for long‐term research from which archived samples are often derived. Addressing the geographical knowledge gap in long‐term soil change is critical moving forward and future efforts to expand soil archive use in developing nations will require strong local engagement, collaborative research alliances, and long‐term resource commitments (Gobezie et al., 2021; Minasny et al., 2020; Van Groenigen & Stoof, 2020). These challenges are not unique to soil archive research, or even soil science, but the long‐term nature of soil archives exacerbates pre‐existing differences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time in a bottle: Use of soil archives for understanding long‐term soil change

Bergh

Calderón

Clemensen

et al. 2022

Soil Science Soc of Amer J

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Soil archives preserve a snapshot of soils from a specific time and location, allowing researchers to re-evaluate soils of the past in the context of the present for an improved understanding of long-term soil change. To date, the extent of soil archive use in the peer-reviewed literature is poorly inventoried. Here, we document the characteristics and distribution of global soil archive use, as found in 245 publications, following an exhaustive search of English language journals. Soil archive use has increased substantially since 1980, reaching 59 publications between 2016 and 2020. The age of soil archives across the compilation ranged from 5 to 160 yr, with mean and median archive ages of 48 and 37 yr, respectively. Publications using soil archives originated mostly from countries in the northern hemisphere, with the top five reporting countries including the United States (61), United Kingdom (52), New Zealand (21), Canada (18), and China (14). Land uses associated with soil archive publications were dominated by agroecosystems, specifically land planted to annual crops. Fortyseven percent of investigations focused on changes in soil C, N, or organic matter, whereas investigations of other subjects did not exceed 20% each. The compilation is publicly available online. As demands on soils increase, archives will serve as an invaluable tool for understanding long-term soil change in the Anthropocene era. Multiregional coordination and increased investment in curation and retention of soil archives are recommended to preserve these irreplaceable resources.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%