In this beginning of the year (which I hope will be great for everyone!), I am wondering if there are topics in soil science that, at this point, would benefit from a good, critical review. I don't mean a review that simply lists who has done what, with no real structure or critical insight. No, I mean the kind of thoughtful analysis of the literature that makes the field move forward... As chief editor of the soil processes section of the Open Journal "Frontiers in Environmental Science" (web site at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/environmental-science/section/soil-processes), I am looking for good topics, and also for people who could be invited to write good reviews on them. So, if you have an idea of topic or person, I would be glad to hear about them... Thanks!
http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/environmental-science/section/soil-processes
Dear Philippe,
a topic that always confused me is "soil health" or "soil fertility". What is it? Could it be defined without specifying the intended use of a particular soil? Can "hard core" soil science provide a good definition that might also be useful outside our discipline?
Dear Christina,
Belated reply to your post... Yes, these are topics that would be interesting to review in detail. Concerning "soil health" (or the related "soil quality"), there is such a large amount of literature, where the topic has been insufficiently defined, that one might get very frustrated by any effort to review it... I have been part of debates on soil health, many years ago, where some of the participants advocated that it was better not to define the concept precisely, so as not to narrow the scope of the discussion unnecessarily... Unfortunately, this hopeless attitude has been common in this area, and would make a rational debate somewhat difficult... As you say, the first step would be to acknowledge that soil health, soil quality and all the related concepts must be relative to intended uses of soils. If we don't accept that, and imagine that we could define these concepts in some kind of absolute sense, we would be on the wrong track, I think. But just to make some people accept that, would already be an uphill battle.
Other concepts that it would be useful to review at this stage, and which we still have some hope of approaching from a correct perspective, are related to "soil change and sustainability". I would be curious to see how our colleagues feel about them. There is a lot of talk about the sustainable use of soils. I am not sure that we all have the same notion of sustainability in mind, however. The same goes for soil change, or soil evolution. Some are thinking of change over the long term, brought about by natural causes, while others refer to short-term change, such as through catastrophic erosion or pollution... It would be good for all to be on the same page or pages...
Philippe
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