My first thought is that you say "restore" agricultural sustainability.  If we had it before, then why do we need a whole bunch of new knowledge to get back to it.  It seems like if we had it before, simply bring back the traditional practices and we will have it again.  Of course the word sustainability is a tricky one....perhaps what is sustainable now (in the context of world population, changing ecosystems, etc) is not what was previously sustainable.  What "sustainability" is in your question seems very unclear.  Perhaps you just mean if we can lesson our environmental impacts, or to improve efficiency of our inputs into agriculture?  

The relationships of microbes, soil fauna, and fertility are all interrelated, and will all change with changing climate.  There are a lot of areas that this can be observed and their impacts quantified, which many people are doing along climate gradients. I would be happy to discuss more but I think a little more clarity on your question would help guide the discussion, as it is a very large, open ended subject as you present it and will therefore only generate very vague answers. 

Yes, we can restore potential of soils and agro-ecosystems by the practices mentioned. No tillage is not suitable in all conditions usually in tropical areas to sub tropical or where rain is abundant can go for less tillage. Organic amendments are also good. Soil microbes especially the Nitrogen fixing bacteria have the power to get Nitrogen from air and provide in the root zone for plants so microbes are essential for sustainability.

My first thought is that you say "restore" agricultural sustainability.  If we had it before, then why do we need a whole bunch of new knowledge to get back to it.  It seems like if we had it before, simply bring back the traditional practices and we will have it again.  Of course the word sustainability is a tricky one....perhaps what is sustainable now (in the context of world population, changing ecosystems, etc) is not what was previously sustainable.  What "sustainability" is in your question seems very unclear.  Perhaps you just mean if we can lesson our environmental impacts, or to improve efficiency of our inputs into agriculture?  

The relationships of microbes, soil fauna, and fertility are all interrelated, and will all change with changing climate.  There are a lot of areas that this can be observed and their impacts quantified, which many people are doing along climate gradients. I would be happy to discuss more but I think a little more clarity on your question would help guide the discussion, as it is a very large, open ended subject as you present it and will therefore only generate very vague answers. 

Dear Lincoln,

Thank you very much for your interest and answer.

Well, i am dividing my question in to two parts. First how we can move forward to develop the sustainable agroecosystems( with better social, lesser economic input and negative environmental impact). In doing so how we can cope up with the issue of the global food, fiber, energy demands for global burgeoning population.

Second, Except this how we can reduce the ill effect of the warming on global food production by having the detail knowledge of the soil physicochemical, biological and soil fertility, type of vegetation, agronomic practices etc. like factors.

Is there is any possible options to tackle the both questions simultaneously. 

Issues raised are important and need a serious research attention. I guess there is no straightforward answers .I request you to refer to the following two papers attached.

We can definitely restore the soil health or fertility, by managing organic input. The best way to improve soil microbial diversity for long term sustainability of soil is to use traditional, indigenous knowledge of live-stock manure preparation. The organic input not only sustain the health of soil, but quality  and quantity of crop being harvested. 

Dear Akshat, Would you please provide us  some research papers on improving quality of crop?

Here is one among many others. 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa.3000/abstract;jsessionid=D700FBFEE19EB6D1F432328C2605EB48.f04t02?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

Aloha Rama.  Still a huge question haha.  But here are some thoughts for what itʻs worth.

First I think a LOT more needs to be known about soil microbes and their roles.  I am not convinced, as Akshat seems to be, that greater microbial diversity automatically equates to better long-term soil health. Many soil microbes increase the nutrient cycling of soils by releasing and changing forms of nutrients. However, nutrient cycles are leaky, and simply increasing the cycling of nutrients doesnʻt mean increased soil health. Because the cycles are leaky increasing the nutrient cycling can, in some cases (particularly areas with lots of water) can be reducing soil fertility through losses. Itʻs like an ecosystem...forests donʻt necessarily move towards the maximum diversity, they move towards optimal balance of organisms so that nutrients are best captured and utilized wherever they can be.  Knowing more about microbial communities and how they interact can help us understand what a healthy balance of microbe populations looks like, rather than applying a blanket approach of more is better. 

This is similar to the organic matter.  There are soils where too much organic matter can lock up nutrients.  Additional carbon in the soil (or carbon that microbes like to eat) can cause an increase in nutrient demand by microbes trying to eat the carbon, in some cases depriving plants of the nutrients they need to grow properly. Again, I think a healthy soil is more about balance than it is about saying XX is good and YY is bad.

Relating to your question about warming these balances of a healthy soil are all situationally dependent, including the soil type and the climate. I think there are many areas of the world that are very conducive to studying these changes and impacts along climate gradients.  I think establishing a global network of some of these sites to study the relative changes of the components of different soil types along the climate gradients would go a long way to advancing our understanding of what some of the proper balances would be and how they will change with different temperatures and rainfalls. 

I do also agree with Akshat in that there is a LOT to be learned by looking at indigenous techniques, which is actually exactly what I focus on (Indigenous Cropping Systems). Because of the general lack of inputs (like fertilizers) available to indigenous cultures many of them invested heavily on managing healthy soils with minimal inputs, increasing the nutrient efficiency of the systems rather than simply increasing the nutrient flux.  

Yes dear Lincoln, Thanks a lot for your answer,  i do agree with your suggestion of towards the soil health. 

Yes of course there is need to have a global network on the soil health and complete soil microbiome, fauna in order to solve the above-mentioned issues.

Hope for the more global collaborative program in future.

Good luck for for your work.  

Agriculture sustainability or productivity always depends on soil, better called as soil health or quality. Now the soil health or quality is a function of soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Hence the sustainability also depends on them. Now coming to climate change as related to agriculture, it is governed with the soil or agricultural management practices.These management practices have an impact on those soil properties that I told earlier. What ever parameters you have told all come under the broad term of soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Hence it is clearly understandable that these practices have the impact on sustainability.

I find the discussion interesting.Sustainable agricultural systems are relatively long lasting,say at least 15-25 years.Crop rotations, presence of legume in the rotation, adequate(rainfall or irrigation) moisture,regular addition of organic matter(residues or manures),tillage(minimum or zero) and microbial diversity in soil determine the sustainability of agriculture.Climate resilience can be achieved to some extent if there is sufficient moisture in the profile and organic matter can also hold some water and contribute to resilience.Possibly in the presence of moisture and  organic matter only the microbes can do their job .So we should holistically address the issue of sustainability through all possible best agricultural practices.

Dear Sir,

Thank you very much for adding your opinion at this discussion, I absolutely agree with your points that the soil organic matter is the essential ecosystem property of the soil. We have to have enhance it by the adoption of the suitable agronomic practices.

Hope for the holistic program in India in future, for the sustainability of the agroecosystems while reducing its environmental risks.

Thanks a lot Sir for your nice answer.

Dear All,

Thanks a lot for your active participation on the topic.

For the sustainable food production systems to meet the  global demands of the burgeoning population and soil system sustainability,we have to have think together and there is more need for the global collaborations and projects.

I think there should be more focus on the development of the microbial inoculant for global market, rhizosphereic engineering, molecular and genetic component transfer, abiotic and biotic stress tolerant  variety development,  degraded land restoration as a option for agricultural extensification. Also detail scientific understanding about the crop rhizospheric microbiome and their interactions to regulate the  soil and crop health is  urgent need of hour to all of us.

Ready to work in such directions..

Good Luck to all of  you for your valuable ideas.